Presenting an Iterative Innovation Framework Perceived for Resource-Constrained Society

In the literature, innovation-related issues are widely discussed in the context of large firms/industrialized nations. However, case-based studies to explore the determinant factors in the success/failure of technological innovation for resource-constrained societies are still inadequate and evolving. Hence, this article presents an exploratory case study to examine an equitable, sustainable and democratic product innovation and management framework evolving under Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG) in India. Three special cases of RuTAG are considered here as a case study. We have adopted the multi-method approach research tools viz. workshops, idea-sharing sessions, end users' opinion collection, etc. so that all the stakeholders' judgments can be collected and analyzed to get a clear insight into the product innovation process emerging under the RuTAG project. Based on those insights, we have presented here an iterative innovation management framework. The key features of the framework are the participation of stakeholders in each iteration so that academia can collect real-time feedback from users to accommodate social needs/circumstances/financial and infrastructure capacities in the development and delivery of the product. Moreover, this study will try to map different actors and explore their roles in the process of overcoming the barriers to successful product innovation which are generally missing in traditional innovation practices. Thus, we seek to understand how a complex network of actors in the RuTAG project helps in the design, development, and transfer of need-based products/technologies in a resource-constrained society. Further, the feedback-gathering mechanism developed by RuTAG to collect a community's needs/ aspirations/ constraints about products/ technology is presented.