Assessment of Ecosystem Support for Grassroots Innovations and Technopreneurship: A Synthesis Based on Case Studies of Rural Innovators in India

Abstract

An important area of research is to answer the fundamental questions of what can be done to support Grassroots innovations and entrepreneurships in India. Grassroots innovation is defined as innovative product or process created at the bottom of the pyramid, usually due to necessity, hardship and challenges. Grassroots innovators are among those individual who usually innovate only to solve their existing problems but not with the intention of commercialization. Most of the Grassroots Innovators have poor educational background, financial instability and lack entrepreneurial skills. Business incubators are proven and well known internationally as dynamic tools for fostering new ventures to support technology commercialization, technology transfer, innovation acceleration, economic development and job creation; and is a vital component of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Technological Business incubators (TBIs) like National Innovation Council (NIC) have played the role of facilitator in giving initial support to germinating enterprises of these grassroots innovators, by providing mentoring support, technological support, financial support and even market linkages. Despite such efforts by incubators with innovation having huge market potentials, the success rate of commercialization of these innovation has been mediocre indicating a need to assess the role technological of business incubators in the ecosystem supporting grassroots innovations and giving suggestions to improve the success rate. The findings that are extrapolated from the analysis of two case studies are presented. The paper results provide suggestion and recommendations to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem supporting grassroots innovators.