Model for Frugal Innovation Through Intellectual Capital and IT Capability to Build an IR4.0 Education Ecosystem
Inventor
Despite impressive achievements in Malaysian higher education systems over the past ten years, Private Higher Learning Institutions (PHEI) in Malaysia are challenged with the reduction in the core budget. Shrinking budgets, in turn, put tremendous pressure on PHEI initiatives to build the IR4.0 education ecosystem due to rising operating costs. While scholars accentuate that IT capability coupled with creative intellectual capital has the ability to create frugal innovation in PHEI to leapfrog the financial constraints and achieve IR4.0 education ecosystem, the evidence for and discussion of this concept is still scant. There is a need for a robust framework for PHEI to achieve frugal innovation despite resource constraints to build IR4.0 education ecosystem. However, there is a lack of a specific frugal innovation model. This project draws on knowledge-based theory and dynamic capabilities theory. Specifically, IT capabilities were hypothesized to mediate intellectual capital (structural capital, and relational capital) to achieve frugal innovation in PHEI. Driven by positivistic paradigm, the model was tested with survey data collected from PHEI. The outcome of this study, a robust model for PHEI to achieve frugal innovation, will give light to leap ahead of the transformation and performance despite financial constraints.
