Stepping out of the innovation race to embrace outnovation: Fostering well-being and responsible consumption through sustainability, simplicity, authenticity, and nostalgia

This article theorizes and characterizes the concept of “outnovation” as an alternative or a complement to innovation within the framework of grounded theory. Outnovation consists of stepping out of the unrelenting innovation race and removing all unnecessary innovations from a product, focusing instead on sustainability, simplicity, authenticity, and nostalgia. After presenting the dangers and limits of innovative strategies and disasters resulting from poorly mastered innovations, the research studies four different cases, which examples demonstrate that not innovating or suppressing innovations is not synonymous with bankruptcy. At a time when customers are looking for more sustainable products and when many economists advocate degrowth and less unbridled consumption, companies are looking for new forms of differentiation and value creation. Outnovating is a way of getting out of the vicious circle of endless innovation and meeting United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. • The race for innovation implies a race for consumption that a part of society rejects. • Outnovation consists of stepping out of the unrelenting innovation race. • Outnovation has four dimensions: sustainability, simplicity, authenticity, and nostalgia. • Outnovating businesses contribute to several of the Sustainable Development Goals. • Innovation and outnovation are not mutually exclusive: they can be combined.