Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

that influence the diffusion of grassroot innovations. Based on the context of the case study gaps areidentified in existing literature vis-à-vis the emerging markets context and marketing challenges areenlisted. The paper then summarizes the way forward for marketing research and practice to overcomethese challenges and create a suitable environment for the diffusion of grassroot innovations.Challenges are highlighted in the areas of (1) financial resource availability to the adopter, (2) lack ofcommunication opportunities, (3) Budgetary constraints for the innovator for marketing of the innovation,(4) sharing of expertise for the innovator and (5) a broader outlook at the drivers of grassroot innovation.Grassroot InnovationsGrassroot Innovations are essentially solutions generated by people at the grassroots levels to tide overpersistent problems, the solutions to which are either not available or not affordable by a large section ofthe consumer masses in developing countries like India. These innovations, therefore, capture an unmetneed of a large section of the population and building a value chain around these innovations to take themto market holds the potential of wealth creation in a truly sustainable and equitable manner (Bulsara,Shailesh and Porey; 2009).Before we venture into the details of how grassroot innovations are important to the emerging economies,it would be helpful to understand the definition of grassroot. The oxford English dictionary refers to grassroot as ―the most basic level of an activity or organization; or the ordinary people regarded as the mainbody of an organization‘s membership‖.Combining the definition of grassroot and the understanding that one would have from the abovedescription of a grassroot innovation, we can arrive at a few basic takeaways as to what a grassrootinnovation actually is;• Grassroot innovations are developed at the grassroot levels of the society.• The solutions or innovations are developed by people working on the same domain as the solutionbecomes potent.• The innovators are motivated to overcome the problems faced in the work that they perform on a regularbasis.• The solutions that they develop are either novel or are costly and unaffordable for them.• The unaffordability of the solution (in cases where the solutions to the problems already exist)communicates that these innovators are mostly from modest financial backgrounds.Srinivas and Sutz (2008) in their attempt to develop an analytical framework to understand the role of aninnovation in a developing country, have mentioned that the scarcity and the need for solution ensures thatidiosyncratic innovative paths are followed, which they argue have been least theorized and which mayprovide solutions for urgent and otherwise unsolved problems in developing economies.Diffusion of InnovationsIn one of the classic studies on the subject of diffusion of innovations Rogers (1995) has provided a goodinsightful idea about the way in which the diffusion of an innovation happens in a society. The authorinitially defines Diffusion ―as the process by which an innovation is communicated through certainchannels over time among the members of a social system‖ and innovation ―as an idea, practice, or objectthat is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption‖.The major contribution of Rogers (1995) work is the fact that he describes the four majorelements of diffusion of an innovation. He suggests that the four elements of diffusion are (1) Innovation,(2) Communication channel, (3) Time and (4) The Social system.