Towards scaling up grassroots innovations in India: A preliminary framework

Towards scaling up grassroots innovations in India: A preliminary framework

De Keersmaecker, A.E.K.
Parmar, V.S.
Kandachar, P.V.
Baelus, C.
vandenbempt, K.

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

2012-12-31

Grassroots innovations (GI) include need-based products or services that are created by individuals or groups within local communities. These products and services have potential to contribute to the quality of an individual’s life, and on a larger scale contribute to the development of a community by creating new business activities. The grassroots innovations are often created in a resource constrained environment; with limited access to formal knowledge, infrastructure and materials, and limited buying power. Although GIs have potential to be a commercial success, scaling up and commercialization of grassroots innovations is often inhibited because of a lack of formal education among innovators, absence of entrepreneurial culture and supporting infrastructure in the given context. This paper elaborates the significance of GIs for people in developing countries. Grassroots innovations can be a subject of business development and be significant to empower local communities. In order to live up to its potential, it is important to understand the mechanisms on how to scale up a grassroots innovation and overcome inhibiting factors. Until now, only a limited number of grassroots innovations have been scaled up or have been commercially launched in the developing countries. In India for instance, some governmental organizations are supporting grassroots innovations which have potential to be successful in the market. To get insights in the up scaling process, we propose to learn by examining existing scaling up cases. Based on these insights, solutions can perhaps be suggested to optimize the scaling up process. A preliminary framework is proposed to identify design drivers articulated by grassroots innovators and up-scalers towards successful scaling up. Thereby the framework suggests design drivers retrieved from literature could be crucial for scaling up grassroots innovations successfully. It is essential to understand how these design drivers are reached. Conclusions are drawn to facilitate the construction of the framework.

grassroots innovations
scaling up process
product development
sustainable business
developing countries

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fc2d3631-9881-4a73-8a42-acf1d185e111

UNESCO Chair International Conference - Technologies for Sustainable Development: A Way to Reduce Poverty?, Lausanne, Switzerland, 29-31 May 2012

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2012 The Author(s)