Exploring grassroots innovation practices and relationships to drivers of start-up success in a multicultural context

Abstract

This paper compares and contrasts how grassroots innovations are supported in a developing country such as India with how the support is offered in Wales, UK. In India, design support for grassroots innovations is provided through the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) with the help of local universities. In Wales, the Welsh Government provides funding for indigenous innovations through the Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) program. The paper presents two case studies, one from India where a grassroots innovation was developed into a commercial product with the design support of an Indian institution and one from Wales where design support was provided by PDR (the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research), Cardiff Metropolitan University and Welsh universities. Three key questions investigated in the case study research were: (1) what can be learned from comparing and contrasting the design support given to grassroots innovations in India and Wales? (2) How can people and local businesses benefit from collaboration with university research centres in India? (3) How could this design support be further improved?.