Frugal Innovation and Innovative Creation

2FabLab: Creation and Design through Technology?

The issue of ICT (involving the fusion of computer-audiovisual-telephony), which has become commonplace, refers to the elaboration, coordination, collaboration – sometimes cooperative – (through free access or acquisition) of knowledge via the circulation of information and data flows. In relation to the theory of the firm, the first to mention the importance of this tool for improving internal coordination was Coase (1937). However, at the operational level, it was not until the 1980s and 1990s that the management of information and flows within the firm (intra-organization) and, more or less explicitly, between firms (inter-organization) was improved and/or optimized.

The 1980s corresponded to a change in companies due to competition from Japanese firms whose competitive advantage was based on the worldwide marketing of quality products at a price comparatively much lower than that achieved elsewhere. However, unlike western companies, which tend to be highly hierarchical and vertically integrated, the Japanese winning form is based on the organization of a network of companies. Thus, Aoki’s J model (1986) relates an organizational decentralization articulating a set of appendices (shops) within the firm’s legal boundary (decentralized intra-organization of the F-N type: Firm-Network) and also, above all, outside it, by linking legally distinct entities (NoF: Network of Firms, around a Coordinating Actor noted CA or pivotal ...