Jugaad as Scarcity-Induced Ingenuity at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to reconceptualize jugaad, the colloquial Indian notion of an improvised fix, as a manifestation of consumer scarcity-induced ingenuity, extending its conceptualization beyond firm-level frugal innovation to the everyday adaptive practices of bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) consumers. By doing so, it fills a significant theoretical gap in understanding improvisation as a survival-oriented consumer capability in the context of chronic resource scarcity. Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing on scarcity theory and consumer vulnerability research, and the nascent literature on informal circular economies, we develop a theoretically grounded process model. The model articulates structural antecedents, adaptive mechanisms, and dual-level outcomes of consumer jugaad, accompanied by formal propositions. Findings: Chronic resource constraints, including poverty, market exclusion, institutional distrust, and urgent unmet needs, trigger a repertoire of ingenuity mechanisms: cognitive reframing of deficits, functional repurposing of objects, informal social exchange, risk recalibration under desperation, and labor substitution. These practices yield individual-level benefits (immediate utility, enhanced self-efficacy, and skill accumulation) but simultaneously reinforce systemic informality and structural exclusion. Jugaad is further shown to constitute a grassroots enactment of circular economy principles, preceding and often outpacing formal sustainability interventions. Originality/Value: This paper makes the first explicit theoretical integration of scarcity theory and consumer ingenuity at the BOP, repositioning poor consumers as strategic cognitive agents rather than passive beneficiaries. Implications are drawn for inclusive market design, BOP-oriented marketing strategy, circular economy policy, and financial inclusion.