Emerging countries continuously strive to attain economic growth using development in technology as a linchpin. Although globalization has engendered the use of technology but some regions in emerging countries struggle with recurring problems of poverty, unemployment, inequality, and fulfilment of basic needs. This variation in landscape calls for the need to revisit technology, whereby ‘Appropriate Technology’ comes into the discussion, being quite pervasive in third world countries and emerging economies. Even after four decades of appropriate technology movement, there is hardly any systematic literature review. The objective of this study is to revisit the extant literature on appropriate technology through a systematic literature review combined with a case study approach. This study contributes to the scant literature available on appropriate technology by synthesizing discussions in both theory and practice. The findings of this study reveal that appropriate technology is yet to be linked with sustainable development and innovation in the context of emerging economies, and also presents the future agenda of the research. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd