Innovation in technology in the last few decades has revolutionized society's ability to solve problems. Answering the call for innovation and management, the concept of appropriate technology is discussed. Appropriate Technology is a small-scaled technology developed by community to cater their needs. The study explores the conceptualization of Appropriate Technology in the era of innovation based on empirical data from a field survey. This study attempts to redefine and relook the tenets of appropriate technology and finding out the factors of appropriateness by analyzing empirical data. The field survey is conducted through close-ended questionnaire and face-to-face interview of 193 people from NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), Government. Officials and students of a technical institution from a state of India. The findings of the study presented three factors of appropriateness namely designing for socio-environment sustainability, localizing design to cost solutions and exploring the market potential, which highlights the importance of positioning appropriate technology and exploiting its perspective to build it a mainstream discipline in technology management and studies. © 2018 IEEE.