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How to promote innovation remains a challenge. In practice, some enterprises try to initiate an organizational crisis intentionally to spur innovation. This study approaches this practice and aims to explore the role of intentional organizational crisis in innovation.

This study conducted an empirical study. Data was collected from 297 companies in China by a questionnaire survey.

Results show the role of intentional organizational crisis in innovation. There is a U-shaped relationship between intentional organizational crisis and product innovation capability. Past performance and resources allocation capability moderate this relationship by weakening the impact of intentional organizational crisis on product innovation capability.

This study highlights the light and dark sides of intentional organizational crisis and explores its impact on innovation capability, providing some implications for practitioners to use crises as shocks to spur innovation and enriching the research of organizational crisis and innovation capability.

This research aims to answer the following question: Could bricolage become a capability for companies in emerging markets to develop frugal innovations in times of crisis? Therefore, in this paper the main aim is to identify whether in times of crisis the development of frugal innovation in emerging markets depends on the bricolage capability.

The hypotheses were statistically tested using the structural equation modeling technique, with data collected through the survey method applied to 215 companies in Brazil.

The results allowed support for the hypothesis that bricolage capability has a positive impact on the development of frugal innovation. Therefore, a mediating test was verified, allowing confirmation that to develop frugal innovation in emerging markets, bricolage becomes a required capability for companies in times of crisis.

The limitation of this study lies in considering the effect of bricolage on frugal innovation only in the context of Brazil, while in developed countries this effect may be similar, as they also suffer from resource constraints caused by crises.

This research provides insights to guide managers by highlighting bricolage as a key managerial capability for the development of frugal innovation. A set of managerial recommendations are provided based on bricolage skills.

The study has contributed to the literature on bricolage and frugal innovation by addressing bricolage as an antecedent of frugal innovation in emerging markets, especially when those markets are affected by resource scarcity.

The aim of this paper is to present systematically a variety of benefits from innovating in response to an economic crisis.

This is a conceptual paper that draws on prior conceptual and empirical studies, especially the innovation-based view of firm performance.

Many firms have cut their innovation expenditures in response to the COVID-19 crisis. However, the financial crisis in 2008/2009 has shown that these short-term cost savings may have severely negative consequences on competitiveness. Several innovation examples from the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic further indicate that companies may benefit from a variety of first-order innovations, which go considerably beyond product development. Consequently, researchers and executives need to consider the variety of innovation types beyond product development, and they further need to emphasize second-order innovations, which describe the dynamic transformation of innovation management.

Academics and practitioners need to put specific attention to the transformation of innovation processes at the beginning of a crisis because firms may have to redesign their innovation processes. This dynamic reconfiguration and realignment of innovation processes further is essential again if a crisis continues for a longer period, such as the crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic. For example, if a company currently does not respond to relevant trends, its competitive position will deteriorate because other companies will enter the market. If firms can afford to continue or strengthen the innovation activities, they may profit substantially after the crisis.

This study aims to focus on implementing frugal innovation and its principles by social entrepreneurs to face the challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research paper discusses the case of an Indian social entrepreneur who works for menstrual health and hygiene of unprivileged and rural women in India. The social entrepreneur’s constant endeavor is to create an ecosystem to ensure rural women’s economic and social upliftment through financial inclusion and livelihood training. When faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the social entrepreneur re-purposed the manufacturing process to produce masks that were the need of the hour.

The research paper is qualitative and follows an inductive case study approach. The underlying principles of frugal innovation are established through content analysis of the social entrepreneur’s interviews and her team members.

The study discusses how adversity can be an opportunity for social entrepreneurs by implementing frugal innovation principles, i.e. re-use, re-purpose, re-combine and rapidity, in times of crisis.

One of the major limitations of this study is that it is based on a single case study, as, in the current scenario, this case appeared to be the most suitable one. There is no way to generalize the assumptions of this model. Researchers will have to study the phenomena of frugal innovation in adversity across multiple cases in the future. Also, the study is based on a single emerging economy, i.e. India. Further research may be carried out with such cases from other countries.

The proposition of this research paper will help new and established social entrepreneurs understand that the four principles of frugal innovation and their practical application by a social entrepreneur. This will act as a guiding light for the present and future entrepreneurs regarding how one can respond to a crisis. This will also help advance our understanding of the distinct ways in which social entrepreneurs’ activities can help society in times of crisis. The findings of this research paper provide timely implications for social entrepreneurs. To respond efficiently to various crises, it is important to consider its effect on social entrepreneurship.

The research paper shows that the social enterprise has implemented frugal innovation principles to manufacture the COVID-19 protection items supplied through existing supply chain networks. Also, a social entrepreneur is not intimidated by the sudden changes in the business environment; instead, they look at the situation as an opportunity to do something new. They are always willing to take the risk to innovate a solution that will address people’s problems. frugal innovation, due to its highly collaborative nature and its ability to make the most from limited resources, is the only way social entrepreneurs can create an inclusive, secure and sustainable future.

There are several challenges in social entrepreneurship, especially in emerging economies like India. During the pandemic, availability of resources was the major challenge, due to which social entrepreneurs had to find solutions through frugal innovation. This paper provides the practical application of the four principles of frugal innovation implemented by a social enterprise to manufacture and supply Covid protection items. It also presents the practical and managerial implications of the principles of frugal innovation by social entrepreneurs in low resource settings.

This paper aims to understand the role of government played in the innovation process during the social crisis, and to investigate the innovation activities of the authoritarian state when dealing with social crisis.

Secondary data pertaining to eight impactful technological innovations in China during the COVID-19 crisis reveal how interactions and joint efforts by commercial firms and government organizations emerged as spontaneous responses.

The analysis of eight innovations – health code adoption, health omnichannel construction, noncontact service provision, distance education provision, public emotion consolation service, cross-boundary project promotion, cloud office adoption and medical material production – reveals a matrix of best practices that details the roles of government (controller or endorser) and the value creation orientation (pro-social or pro-economic value).

This study enriches innovation literature by providing a new perspective on the relationship between governmental force and technological innovation during social crises. As these new insights reveal, technological innovation can contribute to social crisis management. China’s example provides helpful implications for other countries suffering from the COVID-19 crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how national and regional authorities in south-east Europe in a period of crisis perceive and set in motion research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3) and the options that these strategies offer to overcome the current fiscal and development crisis.

The paper starts with a literature review on the guiding principles of smart specialisation strategies and the differences from previous rounds of regional innovation strategies. Evidence on smart specialisation efforts is provided by cases studies in Greece, Slovenia, and Cyprus, focusing on the elaboration of such strategies in three countries with precarious innovation systems under severe conditions of crisis. The case studies are organised around key aspects of the smart specialisation logic, such as the selection of specialisation priorities, bottom-up governance, private sector leadership, and engines of innovation and competitiveness.

The paper explores the obstacles encountered in running effective RIS strategies under crisis conditions. The paper highlights the main challenges to address, such as the readiness and credibility of public authorities to design and implement sound RIS3 strategies, the willingness of companies to be involved in strategic planning, the availability of private investment funds, innovation and diversification during a crisis, and the drivers of specialisation that could lead to competitiveness and growth. In the conclusions the paper identifies three routes towards smarter productive diversification and five critical stages in the entrepreneurial discovery process.

The paper has both practical and theoretical significance. It focuses on the main challenges of smart specialisation and offers guidance in the elaboration of RIS3 in peripheral EU economies. On the other hand, it proposes a model for the entrepreneurial discovery process, based on the assessment of areas and futures of productivity and added-value increase, as productive diversification and crisis exit route.

The COVID-19 crisis has created enormous strain in global supply chains. The disruption has caused severe shortages of critical items, including personal protective equipment (e.g. face masks), ventilators and diagnostics. The failure of the industry to meet the sudden demand for these necessary items has caused a severe humanitarian crisis. These situations, resulting from the COVID-19, crisis have led to the informal growth of frugal innovation in sustainable global supply chains. This paper aims to provide a detailed overview of drivers of frugal-oriented sustainable global supply chains, following lessons acquired from emerging countries’ attempts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors used a focused group approach to identify the drivers and this paper further validated them using existing literature published in international peer-reviewed journals and reports. The authors adopted total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to analyze the complex relationships among identified drivers.

The authors present a theoretical framework to explain how the drivers are interlinked. This paper has developed the framework through a synthesis of the TISM modeling and Matrice d’impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment analysis. This paper observed that government financial support, policies and regulations, under the mediating effect of leadership and the moderating effect of national culture and international rules and regulations, has a significant effect on the adoption of emerging technology, volunteering initiatives and values and ethics. Further, emerging technology, volunteering initiative and values and ethics have a significant effect on supply chain talent and frugal engineering. These results provide some useful theoretical insights that may help in further investigating the role of frugal innovations in other contexts.

The authors find that outcomes of the methodical contributions and the resulting managerial insights can be categorized into four levels. Industry and researchers alike can use the study to develop the decision-support systems guiding frugal-oriented sustainable global supply chains amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in recovering them thereafter. Suggestions for future research directions are offered and discussed.

The goal of this study is to learn about of the strategic framework used by event organizers in Indonesia to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. This effort is also used to see how crisis management is implemented in the organization, particularly in relation to the company's efforts to maximize technology in this COVID-19 crisis situation.

This is a qualitative study that employs the case study method with a single intrinsic case. Researchers chose six sources based on the range of responsibilities and authorities they have.

To remain viable faced with COVID-19 pandemic, event organizers must adopt an open communication strategy, be ready to adapt to changing conditions and take bold steps in crisis management. In general, Garuda Organizer's crisis management strategy consists of five stages: crisis research, forming a crisis team, planning crisis management steps, implementing a new work system and adapting to the new system's culture.

The focus of this research is on how to deal with crisis strategies in the world of event organizer from the standpoint of innovation diffusion. This study cannot be generalized because it is limited to efforts to formulate a strategic framework carried out by event organizer companies in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, not seeing the effectiveness of the strategy.

This research, in addition to its theoretical implications, provides practical contributions to the event organizer industry. The pandemic encourages every event organizer company to always be prepared to adapt to changing conditions. There is no such thing as a static condition; rather, it can change abruptly at any time. As a result, the most important requirement is a quick and precise response. Responsive leadership will ensure that the adaptation process goes smoothly. With uncertain conditions, businesses must be prepared to respond to any changes that occur at any time. Sometimes desperate action is required because it must be done quickly. Aside from that, do not overlook openness management. It will be easier to manage a crisis if all available communication channels are opened. Opening all communication channels allows all components of the company to participate in overcoming the crisis. The participation of all parties will make it easier to deal with any crisis that arises. This transparency is carried out not only within the company, but also with parties outside the company, such as the government as a regulator, company partners and community members who use our services. Aside from that, a willingness to change and step outside of one's comfort zone is required both within the company and for each individual employee. The company's willingness to try new things and learn quickly becomes critical for businesses in the midst of a crisis. As in the case of Garuda Organizer, a willingness to constantly learn and develop a new culture that is more in line with current conditions will make the company more adaptable in dealing with crises. Thus, effective crisis-response strategies can be developed quickly. When we are at ease in certain circumstances, as employees, we are often hesitant to change, even if the times or circumstances have changed dramatically. It is necessary to avoid the comfort of the status quo. It takes self-will to change in a crisis like this. What does not change will be forgotten by time. To maintain the continuity of the company's activities, all employees must be willing to give up their comfort and possibly make a small sacrifice (including time and effort). If companies can unite the interests of companies and individuals who work as employees (As the management and employees of Garuda Organizer have done by devoting more time to the company's future and delving deeper into one's own potential), they will undoubtedly survive the current crisis.

This study discovered that even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is fraught with restrictions, there still are event organizer companies striving to provide the best service. The Garuda Organizer company strives to provide good service to its customers by disseminating innovations. Despite the limited circumstances, the public continues to enjoy events in a novel format, namely through virtual spaces.

This study identifies the use of technology as a means to overcome the problem of organizing events in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and maps the complexity of the innovation adoption process in Indonesian event organizer firms.

In this paper, the authors present an empirical framework that incorporates different factors of the impact of COVID-19 on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in La Rioja, Spain, in relation to the value chain, gender and family business and allows the evaluation of these impacts on the SMEs' outcomes.

The authors conduct exploratory research based on phone interviews with 329 business managers from SMEs in La Rioja (Spain), from June 1 to June 30 2021, using ordinary least squares linear regression and matching procedures to test the study hypotheses.

The results show that the impact of COVID-19 related to primary activities in adding value, such as inbound logistics, operations and marketing, have a positive influence on innovation outcomes in SMEs, as do female managers. Family SMEs present poorer innovation outcomes.

At the organizational level, this paper may be of interest to management, and at the national and regional levels to policymakers, since it could help to develop policies that support SMEs' sourcing, operations and marketing in order to prepare for potential value chain disruptions. Additionally, this research may help decision-makers to foster and promote innovation in SMEs as a way of ensuring their resilience.

In this paper, the authors provide novel evidence about the effect of COVID-19 in SMEs. Moreover, it has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the redefinition of supply chains at the organizational level.

This paper systematically evaluates the existing literature of innovations in freight transport, including all modes, to uncover the key research themes and methodologies employed by researchers to study innovations and their implications in this industry. It analyses the role of transport and the impact of innovations during crises, such as COVID-19.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the innovations in freight transport unravels the pre-requisites of such endeavours in achieving a resilient and sustainable transport network that effectively and efficiently operates during a crisis. The authors performed keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis and research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis using BibExcel and Gephi to determine the major resulting research streams in freight transport.

The RFPN identified five emerging themes: transport operations, technological innovation, transport economics, transport policy and resilience and disaster management. Optimisation and simulation techniques, and more recently, artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) approaches, have been used to model and solve freight transport problems. Automation innovations have also penetrated freight and supply chains. Information and communication technology (ICT)-based innovations have also been found to be effective in building resilient supply chains.

Given the growth of e-commerce during COVID-19 and the resulting logistics demand, along with the need for transporting food and medical emergency products, the role of automation, optimisation, monitoring systems and risk management in the transport industry has become more salient. Transport companies need to improve their operational efficiency using innovative technologies and data science for informed decision-making.

This paper advises researchers and practitioners involved in freight transport and innovation about main directions and gaps in the field through an integrated approach for evaluating research undertaken in the area. This paper also highlights the role of crisis, e.g. COVID-19, and its impacts on freight transport. Major contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) a qualitative and quantitative, systematic and effective assessment of the literature on freight transport through a network analysis of keywords supplemented by a review of the text of 148 papers; (2) unravelling major research areas; (3) identifying innovations in freight transport and their classification as technological and non-technological and (4) investigating the impact of crises and disruptions in freight transport.