India’s automotive sector has grown tremendously in the post-liberalization period. The growing domestic market, increased export opportunities and greater emphasis of vehicle manufacturers on high-quality, innovative solutions have created a context for component suppliers to ramp up their...

This paper is a part of a series of analyses conducted within a BMBF-funded research project to investigate potentials of frugal innovations for Germany. One of the objectives of this project has been to identify innovation pathways that foster frugal innovations. Since auto component suppliers...

Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between "dirty" (internal combustion engine) and "clean" (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that...

Frugal innovations, i.e. affordable products and services with appropriately good quality, are getting increasingly important for securing long-term competitiveness in both, the developing world and in industry nations. Nevertheless, ensuring actual implementation of technology-driven frugal...