Frugal innovations are increasingly considered in the context of sustainability and are seen to have promising potential for the realization of global sustainability goals. So far, the discourse has focused on the question of whether and how frugal innovations contribute to sustainable...

This paper presents a literature review discussing empirical as well as conceptual papers concerning the CTO – the Chief Technology Officer – his tasks, responsibilities and authority and his relations with other corporate functions. It further presents first results of a CTO survey...

Theory distinguishes between lead users and “common” users, where lead users have a higher propensity to innovate. We propose to cluster users with similar characteristics (e.g. use intensity) into user groups (e.g. professionals and non-professionals) within a community. In line with...

Novel information and communication technologies, foremost the Internet, have revolutionised the innovation landscape. Mass-collaboration involving end-users is now, a critical component of many types of software improvement and has the potential to make users as the main innovation source of...

Users have proven to be a principal driving force of many innovations in different industries. Therefore, more and more firms try to identify avenues to systematically involve users into their new product development. Despite the growing interest in user-driven or user-centred innovation, both...

To increase and speed up diffusion of new product introductions firms may rely on network marketing. They select individuals in customer and user networks whose own product adoptions and opinions influence adoption decisions of others in the network. In this paper we transfer this rationale to...

Recent years have seen the emergence of a paradigm of low-cost innovations targeted at economically weaker sections of the society, seeking to align business with social welfare. In many instances, results on the ground have been, however, rather sobering as firms have generally worried that...