Um framework para design de inovação e empreendedorismo frugais em contextos universitários brasileiros

Abstract

Since the 2000s, new forms of innovation and entrepreneurship have been recognized under the terms Frugal Innovation (FI) and Frugal Entrepreneurship (FE). They stand out for enabling the development of inclusive, accessible, and sustainable products, services, and business models. Used together, they are defined as a collaborative process of generating new ideas, based on working with civil society, to propose reforms and adaptations to existing artifacts to accommodate the behaviors, purposes, and specificities of Base of the Pyramid (BoP) users and their context. In resource-constrained university environments, such as Brazil, they represent alternatives for promoting an academic scenario more sensitive to the needs and regional symbols of that territory. Although the field demonstrates clear interest in the topic, there are still gaps in the state of the art regarding field studies that explicitly delimit the stages, strategies, and resources that, when combined, enable the effective confluence of knowledge between academia and local communities for the value co-production in the classroom. The objective of this work was to develop and establish a framework to represent and support the education process in FI and FE in Brazilian university contexts. Thus, a mixed and exploratory research methodological strategy was adopted, with an emphasis on applied research, through seven stages – (i) problem identification; (ii) awareness of problem; (iii) artifact suggestion; (vi) artifact development; (v) artifact evaluation; (vi) artifact conclusion; and (vii) final considerations –, guided by the precepts of Design Science Research (DSR), and three evaluation criteria: (a) artifact viability; (b) artifact acceptance; and (c) artifact validity, based on Participatory Action Research (PAR). Diverse data collection instruments were used: literature review, survey, semi-structured interviews, and collaborative experiments with professors, university students, and individuals from the BoP. Several data analysis techniques were performed: qualitative descriptive and statistical analysis, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, Chi-square statistics, and content analysis. The results propose a methodological framework (instantiation), composed of two cycles guided by Historical-Critical Pedagogy (HCP), that explains and represents new possibilities for associating and appropriating frugal education strategies and Frugal Design Approaches (FDA) to elucidate the educational process. The research also contributes with its own concept of frugal innovation and entrepreneurship for academic scenarios, consistent with the research objective. The findings may be useful for Brazilian researchers and educators seeking not only to identify latent local challenges but also to promote a space for reflection and appreciation of sociocultural and historical repertoires as sources of local development, through frugal value. Furthermore, the study contributes to a list of resources for pedagogical planning, which can help institutions and other stakeholders understand the learning objectives for the field of study, as well as map potential for disseminating the frugal approach in other disciplines of the university curriculum.