Revalorization, frugal innovation, and circularity: A qualitative exploration of African used automotive parts business

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the nexus of revalorization, frugal innovation, and the circular economy in the under-explored African used automotive parts business context. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with key players including dealers, mechanics, and jobbers, our findings illuminate how these players leverage modern electronic communication, video sharing apps, and barter trade in African used automotive part business. We further found local players employing unique practices to renovate, restructure, alter, restore, reuse, extend, and recycle these used parts, emphasizing maximum value extraction from minimal resources. This paper is one of the first academic works to highlight the criticality of local independent actors (non-dealerships) in the automotive aftermarket sector, especially in non-western contexts. It further showcases these local actors’ contributions to circular economy via revalorization, while at the same time creating social value for the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) consumers. Finally, the paper contributes to several literature streams including circular economy beyond formal systems, scalability of frugal and circular practices, and resource-constrained value creation, among others.