According to the European Innovation Scoreboard, Poland belongs to the group of Moderate Innovators (at the last but one place in the group). Innovation friendly environment and Employment and impacts are the strongest innovation dimensions, while innovators and attractive research system are the weakest ones

Poland and other countries taking part in the Frugal Innovation Project according to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2018.

Our project team conducted research in their counties in order to find out the specifics of frugal innovation market. A piece of research was conducted in Poland. Are you interested in hearing more about frugal innovations appreciated by Polish consumers?

Mahstone is a fluorescent road parts which improves commuting and communication after dusk or during lighting failure and this way provide the safety of: the pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, disabled persons, children and elder people. Mahstone is a prefabricated element with embedded glowing sign. The sign glows for more than 8 hours after all-day exposure to sunlight. It can have any shape, e.g. pictogram, geometric figure, line, letter or number. Mahstone was developed by a small company from West Pomerania Region.

Mahstone is an innovative solution in various aspects:

• improves the safety,
• does not need maintenance,
• does not need electricity,
• does not disappear,
• is environment friendly.

3d pedestrian crossing is a solution which is used by rising number of local governments in Poland. This is used in order to improve the safety of pedestrians. Cooperation with local artists can result in 3D looking pedestrian crossing, which makes the drivers stop or slow down in order not to hit “cuboids”.

Such a solution is:

• Cheap
• Does not requires high technology
• Does not requires special resources (just road paint)
• Environmentally friendly
• Drivers friendly (such pedestrian crossing will not damage their cars, even though they could think so)
• Inhabitants friendly as it protects pedestrians and also engages artists to paint

Affordable accommodation

A rise in tourism has meant increased need for private investors to buy new apartments on primary market or old apartments in secondary market in order to transfer them into attractive place for accommodation, which constitutes competition for traditional hotels.

Such a process is often observed at the coastline, mountain area and capital cities.

Apartments are frugal innovation because it focuses on the main functionality which is to provide a place to stay for a night/nights. Other services which are usually offered by hotels like food, gym, bars etc. are not part of what they offer, as it should be cheaper than typical hotel accommodation and this way target to more people who want to travel.

Discount (budget) store concept is perceived to be frugal innovation in Poland.

Compared to traditional shops, discount stores focus on price rather than display, wide choice within the line or services. Buy more for less is their main marketing slogan. They have also special offers of goods produced specifically for them.

For example, one discount store in Poland offered mobile devices for less than €100. Tablets for 379.00 PLN, which is roughly €88, smartwatches for 89.90 PLN, which is roughly €21. It is estimated that discount stores cover 20% of retail food sale in Poland.

Poverty in Poland

According to the data of Central Statistical Office in Poland, over 5 million people experienced poverty in Poland, below the relative poverty line which equals 50% of average household expenditure. Extreme poverty refers to 4.3% of population. According to CIA, Poland ranks at the 117th place out of 171 countries with 17.6% of population below the poverty line.

Source: European Innovation Scoreboard 2018 – Executive summary, European Commission, 21/06/2018
https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/30201

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/