Opportunities of frugality in the post-corona era

Objective of this paper is two-fold: first, we assess the likely impact of the corona crisis on the economic and societal choices of people, especially in relation to voluntary simplicity. Second, we contextualise the impact of those choices in the field of innovation management. Taking a normative-conceptual perspective we seek to understand in how far frugality, and inter alia, frugal innovations can play a role in better managing the after-effects of the corona crisis and what implications arise out of this for the relevant societal stakeholders. Frugality is likely to emerge as a mega-trend that may shape a frugal 'affordable green excellence' (AGE) as the dominant innovation paradigm. To realise this potential, however, it is necessary for frugal innovators and entrepreneurs to develop a more comprehensive and multidimensional understanding of affordability that is targeted at ensuring financial, societal, infrastructural and ecological affordability of frugal products, services, technologies and business models.