From poverty alleviation to systemic change: A typology of frugal innovation and its contribution to the 3 pillars of sustainability

Frugal Innovation (FI), with its focus on simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and resource efficiency, has emerged as a critical tool for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper explores the evolution of FI and its integration with the environmental, social, and economic pillars of sustainability. Employing Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling, the study uncovers patterns in 1267 academic documents to propose an evolutionary typology spanning four generations of FI. The findings reveal how FI discourse progresses from poverty alleviation and grassroots innovation to advanced sustainable solutions and systemic change, driven by institutional and policy frameworks. However, challenges remain, including limited scalability and a lack of cohesive policy support. This study makes three key contributions. First, it introduces a novel FI typology informed by both theoretical and empirical insights. Second, it develops an LDA-based methodology to analyze large-scale datasets. Third, it provides recommendations for integrating FI insights across sustainability pillars. By bridging knowledge gaps, this paper provides a framework for advancing the understanding and application of FI in achieving global sustainability goals.