The Concept of “Jugaad”: Evidence from Innovations at the Bottom of the Pyramid in India

Abstract

Jugaad is always referred as a creative improvisation, quick fix, and has many other positive and negative connotations attached to it. Many different views are given in respect to what is Jugaad, many links it with frugality, some say it’s the mind set which is all about flexibility, making breakthrough innovation; many regard it as makeshift arrangements and so on. How the ingenious individual is able to come up with ideas, which are nowadays on the verge of being patented in countries like India, is an interesting phenomenon. However, the interesting bit is how Jugaad originated and what is its concept is an areas important to explore. In this paper we try to with the help of content analysis of common examples try to bring out the concept. The result of the study based on qualitative methodology help to explain Jugaad as a confluence of the constructs: (1) bounded situation, (2) Cognitive style, and (3) Improvised Artefact.