ABSTRACT This paper explores the concept of mobile money as a frugal innovation and a business model. While the frugal innovation theory is evolving, frugality addresses three critical issues about social problems, resources constraints and institutional voids. This paper argues that mobile money as a frugal innovation lies at the intersection of social innovation, technological innovation, and institutional innovation. The paper adopted a case study approach allowing for quantitative and qualitative analysis and interpretation of data to explore mobile money adoptions in selected African countries. We drew the study sample purposefully from countries that have witnessed significant adoption of mobile money services. We went on to layer data representing the cost of financial services, distribution or financial services points and financial inclusion rates from the select sub-Saharan African countries on the literature evidence, we interrogate the extent to which mobile money is both a frugal innovation and business model. This paper concludes that mobile money as a frugal innovation addresses affordability constraints and resource constraints, and reduces institutional voids in resource-constrained environments.

中文翻译：

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移动货币是金字塔底层的节俭创新–某些非洲国家的案例

摘要本文探讨了作为一种节约型创新和一种商业模式的移动货币的概念。在节俭创新理论不断发展的同时，节俭解决了与社会问题，资源约束和制度空白有关的三个关键问题。本文认为，作为一种节俭的创新，移动货币是社会创新，技术创新和制度创新的交集。本文采用了案例研究的方法，可以对数据进行定量和定性分析与解释，以探索在某些非洲国家采用移动货币的情况。我们有目的地从目睹了移动货币服务大量采用的国家中抽取了研究样本。我们继续对代表金融服务成本的数据进行分层，撒哈拉以南非洲特定国家/地区的经销或金融服务点以及金融普惠率，根据文献证据，我们质疑了移动货币既是一种节俭的创新又是一种商业模式。本文得出的结论是，作为一种节俭的创新，移动货币解决了可负担性约束和资源约束，并减少了资源受限环境中的制度空白。