Inovação frugal : uma análise do comportamento do consumidor em Aracaju

Abstract

In recent years, various types of frugal innovations have started to emerge, mainly to meet the needs of people who do not have so many financial resources and often ended up without consumption options that suited their realities. One of the areas that suffers from these problems related to inequality of access and the precariousness of public services is precisely the health sector, where there is a great gap between people who are able to pay private health plans and others who only saw the SUS as an option. To meet this need, a new type of business has started to emerge in recent years, named Popular Medical Clinics, which fit the concept of frugal innovations. Thus, this study aimed to understand the purchase decision process in frugal services of clients of popular medical clinics (CMPs) in Aracaju, based on the model of Blackwell, Miniard and Engel (2011). So that the objectives could be achieved, it was defined that this research would be of a qualitative and exploratory nature, so that new insights could be generated on the topic, involving the method of multiple case studies with consumers of popular medical clinics from Aracaju. As data collection techniques, document analysis, observation and semi-structured interviews were used with consumers and managers of the clinics, and a content analysis was subsequently developed. From the analysis of the results, it can be said that frugal innovations are manifested through the services offered by popular medical clinics, where it was also found that the economy of scale is a common characteristic of the clinics. In addition, it can be said that the purchase decision processes of popular medical clinics have a general path, with some similar points in all the studied clinics, in each of the stages of the purchase decision process. Thus, this research contributes to the expansion of academic knowledge on the three themes involved, provided new information on consumers of these services to popular clinics that can better know these clients and improve their strategies, in addition to enabling clinics to offer a better service to the population in general, mainly benefiting low-income people.