ABSTRACT
This chapter integrates the application of business ethics with frugal innovation while relating these approaches to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Ethics is of particular concern with frugal innovation since value is being created along with conserving resources. It considers the principles of honesty, impartiality, and responsibility, and their promotion in frugal innovation within SMEs. Frugal innovation has enormous opportunities to create value while minimising resource input into markets that have been neglected and poorly served. Thus, it raises pertinent ethical questions relating to sustainability, equal access, social responsibility, and commercial integrity, thereby stressing the need for innovation that respects the confines of value-neutral ethics. Additionally, the chapter outlines practical strategies expressed in the literature for SMEs as agents of development in communities oriented towards community ethical principles, such as ethical sourcing, transparency, and stakeholder engagement. By providing a set of insightful yet actionable guidelines, the chapter opens avenues for SMEs to be engaged in frugal innovation whilst upholding ethical standards. The chapter also discusses additional examples of ethical implementations of frugal innovation practices, further attesting to the possibility and potential of SMEs to be involved in both innovation and ethics.
