Jugaad – a road map for innovation?

If it is true that innovation aims to give value to the user, it is also true that perceptions of this value may also vary depending upon the needs and desires. The needs motivate you to look for new solutions. And the adequacy of the solution is also linked (though not only) to the social, economic and cultural context in which the solution is applied. The contextual conditions can generate constraints which in turn can also lead you to think differently and to invent a "smart solution". We would like to argue that if necessity is the mother of invention, similarly the constraint is the father of Jugaad. The Jugaad is a creative way to meet acute needs in the condition of limited resources. It is a reactive approach to the difficulties, problems and needs. The term Jugaad (used in India and Pakistan) is usually loosely associated to makeshift solutions and/or ugly fixes and is often confused with innovation and invention.The purpose of current research is to highlight the main features of Jugaad phenomenon and understand its positioning with respect to the phenomena of invention and innovation. The current study proposes that Jugaad is mainly a cultural phenomenon that is triggered by local needs, local ingenuity, cultural orientation and social constraints to find a viable solution in particular situations. It prevails in conditions of lack of enforcement of laws and regulations.In the current research, by using qualitative research methodology with an autoethnographic approach, we proposed the distinction between Jugaad, invention and innovation. This allowed us to propose three forms of Jugaad such as survival Jugaad, creative Jugaad and innovative Jugaad.One of the aspects on which we have specially focused is the role of tacit knowledge in the realization of Jugaad, also in light of a gap found in literature in associating tacit knowledge to the Jugaad context. We also attempted to highlight several strategic features of Jugaad in social, cultural, economic and tacit dimensions. In addition, we have also attempted to analyze the cultural dimensions of Hofstede and their possible relevance in Jugaad phenomenon in order to come up with some interesting conclusions.Considering that the creative Jugaad and innovative Jugaad have the potential to proceed towards sustainable innovation, we proposed conceptual models to exploit the tacit knowledge by using aforementioned two forms of Jugaad.