About the Heuristics Lab

The Focus of the Lab 
The Heuristics Lab investigates how innovation emerges in  environments characterized by severe resource constraints  through heuristic strategies, i.e. intuitive, experience-based methods that innovators apply under conditions of very limited time, resources, or information. 

Traditional innovation management often focuses on reducing the uncertainty in innovation processes by controlling instruments through the innovation funnel. This leads to routinization of innovation processes based upon rational decision making, elements that are relevant in scaling up innovations. 

Frugal innovation, grassroots innovation, and informal innovation systems provide valuable insights for severely resource-constrained settings in which heuristic decision-making strategies drive innovation processes. 

Innovation in Practice 
In practice, frugal innovation processes frequently combine heuristic, intuitive decision-making with simple routines or informal rules, creating a hybrid innovation process. Heuristics is a decision-making process that can shed light on innovation processes in small innovating firms. However also in routinized innovation processes in both small and large firms, heuristics can be useful to understand and reveal tacit knowledge processes. 

Our hypothesis is that frugal innovations particularly within the informal sector in developing countries, often arises through intuition, rapid decision-making, reactive strategies during crises, and ad-hoc opportunities that emerge in society. 

The Research Agenda  
The Lab investigates the heuristic and context-specific ways in which frugal innovators innovate in practice, and how these processes can be effectively supported. 

The academic coordinators and leads of the Lab are Prof. Cees van Beers and Prof. Saradindu Bhaduri, who together guide its scientific and societal agenda.