Frugal Innovation

Special issue call for papers from Journal of Indian Business Research

The Journal of Indian Business Research (JIBR) is inviting contributions by July 31st, 2012 for consideration in a special issue on Frugal Innovation.

Guest Editors

Vivek S. Natarajan, Lamar University
Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, NMIMS University

Theme

The topic of this special issue is the analysis of frugal innovation. Frugal Innovation can be defined as the practice of developing low cost products -in order to create value for consumers. A more colloquial version of this is referred to as Jugaad in the Indian context.
The recent years have witnessed among other things as growing income disparity in America and Europe owing to the cataclysmic economic crisis and emergence of middle class in the Latin America, East Europe, and South Asia. There has been rapid inflation owing to the expansionist monetary policy and the rising incomes in other countries fuelling rapid consumption. These events will lead to a major change in the consumption pattern. At the same time, the recent economic downturn and the corporate scandals in the West have also led to a creditability gap in the management theories and practices. Consequently, there is an increasingly felt need for new management paradigms for business which do not necessarily originate either from North America or Western Europe. There is also growing emphasis on creating and disseminating sustainable practices.

Amidst this entire backdrop, Frugal Innovation can be helpful in reaching consumers who are the bottom of the pyramid, help in reducing the carbon footprint by removing excessive unwanted features, lead to greater profitability . However, the extant literature on frugal innovation is scant. This special issue is a response to such a void and wishes to publish the state of the art research papers on this very timely topic. Papers are invited from academicians, practitioners and research scholars who have explored aspects of frugal innovation. Interdisciplinary perspectives like engineering, design, ergonomics, sociological, and ethics will be particularly welcome.

Submission Information:

All papers will be subjected to double-blind peer review
Authors should follow the journal's author guidelines for paper submission

Submission deadlines:

Deadlines to Submit Abstracts: July 31st, 2012
Notification of Acceptance: September 15th, 2012
Deadline to Submit Full papers: December 15th, 2012

The review process will take approx. 3 - 4 months.

Full papers which are to be considered for publication in the Journal of Indian Business Research should be made via the ScholarOne portal at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jibr

About the Guest Editors

Vivek Natarajan is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. He has published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Excellence, and International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management. He has numerous papers in conference proceedings.

Gurumurthy Kalyanaram is a Professor and Dean of Research at NMIMS University, Mumbai. He has published more than 100 articles in journals including Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management among others and has numerous conference proceedings as well. He was recognized by MIT with Harold Lobdell Award for contributions and service and his Dissertation was adjudged a finalist for the AMA Doctoral Dissertation Award, 1989 and adjudged a finalist in the Academy of Marketing Science Doctoral Dissertation Award, 1990.