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Process is fundamental: The river is not an object but an ever-changing flow; the sun is not a thing, but an enduring fire. Everything in nature is a matter of process, of activity, of change. (Rescher, 1996, p. 10)
Innovation has been widely investigated in the literature (Chen et al., 2020; Ge et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2019; Lee, & Chen, 2019; Li et al., 2019; Nisha et al., 2019; Rahman et al., 2020), little research is done on inclusive innovation. Inclusive innovation, defined as “the development and implementation of new ideas which aspire to create opportunities that enhance social and economic wellbeing for disenfranchised members of society” (George et al., 2012, p. 663), has been increasingly studied by academia, especially the distinctive capabilities facilitating its process and success (e.g., Ansari et al., 2012; George et al., 2012; Peerally et al., 2019). There are two core streams of the related literature. The first focuses on the antecedents, particularly the organizational capabilities (e.g., capabilities of constraint diagnosis, opportunity identification, networking, and business model design) driving the initiation of inclusive innovation. Those studies highlight the enabler role of a company’s existing capabilities for inclusive innovation initiation (e.g., Galema et al., 2012; Halme et al., 2012). However, this stream views the link between inclusive innovation and its antecedents as a “black box”; that is, they regard the existing organizational capabilities in general as the trigger of inclusive innovation, without exploring the substantial process through which inclusive innovation is realized. In contrast, the second stream focuses on the effect or outcome of inclusive innovation. Those studies highlight the incubator role of inclusive innovation (e.g., Confraria & Godinho, 2015; Foster & Heeks, 2013; Niosi & Reid, 2007), examining how inclusive innovation can foster certain organizational capabilities. However, this second stream views the link between inclusive innovation and its effects as a “black box,” without attempting to determine the particular special capabilities that facilitate inclusive innovation through various stages and the ways in which they achieve such innovation. Further, research on the critical link between these two separate research streams is limited, resulting in a missed opportunity for their synergetic integration. Last, given the dominant attention to either the antecedents or the outcomes of inclusive innovation (e.g., Ault, 2016; Galema et al., 2012; Halme et al., 2012; Pansera & Owen, 2018; Peerally et al., 2019), the process of inclusive innovation has been largely neglected in extant research, and in particular, in studies on multinational enterprises from emerging economies or emerging entrepreneurial firms. This gap suggests there is considerable potential to integrate the dominant research streams from the process perspective.
As George et al. (2012) suggests, inclusive innovation is a process through which firms serve “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP) markets (George et al., 2012). The present article further argues that during this process, entrepreneurial firms may possess some unique advantages to initiate and support the sustainable growth of their inclusive innovations. Hence, this article explores the process of inclusive innovation by emerging entrepreneurial firms, especially their unique organizational capabilities that fundamentally underpin successful development in each phase of the entire process. The specific research questions are as follows:
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What are the essential stages of inclusive innovation from the process perspective?
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How do organizational capabilities evolve in the process of inclusive innovation information management?
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What are the key capabilities at each stage and how do they interplay progressively?