Evaluating sustainability based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a complex but purposeful approach with a broad field of application. In order to handle the complexity of the SDGs and achieve flexibility at the same time, this paper introduces a three‐step evaluation system based on the SDGs for the assessment of the sustainability of innovations. It was used to assess four cases of South African frugal innovation with the conclusion that all four examined cases were sustainable, indicating an interrelation between the frugality and the sustainability of an innovation. The framework was reviewed and revised several times and tested successfully and so far has proven to be applicable to a wide spectrum of innovations.

Social enterprises strive to address social problems and pursue economic goals. In doing so, they also have to deal with the question of how to structure their marketing approaches to balance social and economic marketing goals. Frugal innovation often aims to address social problems with solutions that are affordable and of high quality. At the same time, these innovations are embedded in economic structures and aim to generate profits. Thus, it is assumed that such innovations influence the design of marketing strategies. This case study reveals how the social enterprise EinDollarBrille e.V. combines social and economic aims in its marketing approach based on a frugal innovation. The findings are consistent with previous research that social enterprises should try to overcome seeming contradictions of marketing goals. It is proposed that social enterprises could consciously pursue strategies that create synergy between their dual aims. Thereby, frugal innovations can be advantageous.