Frugal innovation belongs to these new design paradigms, aiming to articulate (high) technology solutions, quality principles, and best local practices. Accessibility, Affordability, Availability, and Awareness are four criteria frugal innovation is expected to reach, and that requires new forms of inclusion of the end-user all along the design process. This chapter addresses this issue of integrating the user's perspective. After exploring how end-users became central in frugal innovation and related concepts (grassroot innovation, for example), we wonder about their main characters, qualities, and vulnerabilities. Then we question the presumed asymmetry and multifaceted relationship between local communities targeted by frugal innovations and firms: collaboration, domination, or competition? The chapter is based on a review of main articles written about frugal innovation and a ten-year research program on frugal innovation for energy access.
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Front Matter
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Part I: VISIONS OF INNOVATION
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Part II: THEORIZING INNOVATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE FOUNDATIONS
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Part III: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO INNOVATION
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Part IV: ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF INNOVATION
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Part V: SUPPORTING INNOVATION: REFRAMING THE INSTRUMENTS
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Part VI: IMMUNE DISCIPLINES AND FORGOTTEN THEORIZATIONS
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Part VII: THEORIZING THE THEORIES
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Back Matter
