ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of frugal innovations (FI) was first noticed in the countries of the global “South”, referring to the emerging market economies and developing countries in the Southern hemisphere. The notion of “frugality”, which as per dictionary meaning refers to “the quality of being frugal, or prudent in saving; the lack of wastefulness”, is central to the concept of FIs. Digital transformation of society offers unique opportunities to realise the vision of FI rooted in the model of Frugality 4.0, which defines affordability along monetary, infrastructural, environmental, and societal dimensions. An empirical, cross-country large-scale survey of customer acceptance for frugal solutions in home energy-management systems is planned to investigate the determinants of customer acceptance in a high-tech field in countries such as Japan, Germany, Finland, and India. The chapter discusses how the perception of frugality has undergone changes and how it is related to the acceptance of frugal products and services by different customer groups and segments.
