Frugal innovation and digital effectuation for development: The case of Lucia

Abstract

This paper illustrates how the lens of effectuation and frugal innovation can be employed to understand digital entrepreneurial practices in development contexts. It presents the case of the director Pawan Kumar, who produced the movie Lucia by relying upon digital tools to create a project identity, to access resources and knowledge from his network, to experiment with variations of his business idea, as well as to secure commitment from partners on a scale that would be impossible otherwise. Using this empirical setting, the paper analyses the practices employed by entrepreneurs in development contexts to overcome resource limitations and institutional voids by leveraging digital technologies to pursue opportunities. The case contributes to the literature on ICT4D by illustrating how digital entrepreneurship has the potential not only to bring about economic benefits, but also to stimulate local culture production, an impact of digital entrepreneurship often overlooked in the literature.