Biography
Elsie's research interest lies in the area of innovation for inclusive development. She explores how frugal and inclusive business models in base of pyramid markets interact with the institutional elements in these contexts, and they balance value creation and value capture, and how they bring about sustainable societal transformation.
She is currently working in the the Frugal Innovations and Responsible Entrepreneurship: Case Studies in the Water and Health Sectors in East Africa project funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Responsible Innovation program.
Elsie has a PhD from the The Economics of Innovative Change programme jointly offered by Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany. Her dissertation titled Inclusive Innovation and Institutional Change explored the sources, drivers and dynamics of societal transformations associated with mobile money innovation in Kenya.
She has worked at Strathmore University in Kenya in various teaching, research and administrative capacities. She has been a visiting research fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, UK.
More information
Work
- Elsie Onsongo (2023) - Frugal innovation in public service delivery: Reflections from case studies in Kenya - [link]
- Elsie K. Onsongo, Peter Knorringa & Cees van Beers (2023) - Frugal business model innovation in the Base of the Pyramid: The case of Philips Community Life Centres in Africa - Technovation, 121 - doi: 10.1016/j.technovation.2022.102675 - [link]
- Elsie Onsongo & Peter Knorringa (2020) - Comparing Frugality and Inclusion in Innovation for Development: Logic, Process and Outcome - Innovation and Development - doi: 10.1080/2157930X.2020.1811931 - [link]
- Jonathan Köhler, Frank W. Geels, Florian Kern, Jochen Markard, Elsie Onsongo, Anna Wieczorek, Floortje Alkemade, Flor Avelino, Anna Bergek, Frank Boons, Lea Fünfschilling, David Hess, Georg Holtz, Sampsa Hyysalo, Kirsten Jenkins, Paula Kivimaa, Mari Martiskainen, Andrew McMeekin, Marie Susan Mühlemeier, Bjorn Nykvist, Bonno Pel, Rob Raven, Harald Rohracher, Björn Sandén, Johan Schot, Benjamin Sovacool, Bruno Turnheim, Dan Welch & Peter Wells (2019) - An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions - Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 31 - doi: 10.1016/j.eist.2019.01.004 - [link]
- Elsie Onsongo (2019) - Institutional entrepreneurship and social innovation at the base of the pyramid: the case of M-Pesa in Kenya - Industry and Innovation, 26 (4), 369-390 - doi: 10.1080/13662716.2017.1409104 - [link]
