Strategic Niche Management Research Articles

Towards water resilience through Nature‐based Solutions in the Global South? Scoping the prevailing conditions for Water Sensitive Design in Cape Town and Johannesburg

Water Sensitive Design (WSD) is gaining attention as a Nature-based Solution (NbS) to urban water problems. It incorporates green infrastructure with engineered urban water systems through innovative design of the built environment and urban landscape. In Africa, Johannesburg and Cape Town are two cities engaging with WSD at a policy level. This paper uses the Strategic Niche Management (SNM) approach in a comparative analysis of ongoing engagement with WSD in Johannesburg and Cape Town. We explore the extent to which this engagement signals the launch of the transition towards water resilience. WSD represents a niche that is in synergy with the visions of sustainable urban (water and environmental) management in both cities. Results indicate a progressive engagement with WSD by different actors at regime and niche levels. However, the lack of coordination and capacity deficiencies due to limited social networks and higher order learning are challenges that constrain take-off and further consolidation of the WSD approach in the transition towards water resilient futures. Furthermore, we find urban governance practitioners struggle with reconciling the pursuit of visions of sustainability to be realised through nature-based urban development with the pressing infrastructure deficits that persist in most African cities.

The significance of pilot projects in overcoming transition barriers: A socio-technical analysis of the Dutch shipping energy transition

The energy transition of Dutch shipping is a complex gradual process due to the variety in vessels, cost and lifetime of assets, uncertainty, additional costs of climate-neutral alternatives and required regulatory changes. This paper aims to create a holistic overview of both the transition barriers and enablers. A focus is placed on the significance of pilot projects.Using the socio-technical multi-level perspective as a framework, literature on lock-in mechanisms, strategic niche management, transition pathways, and shipping specific aspects was evaluated as a starting point for determining the shipping specific barriers. Semi-structured interviews with industry experts were used to further develop the overview of the barriers and add the required enablers. Thereafter, three case studies were conducted for additional detail, context and reflection on the theory, barriers and enablers provided by experts and literature.Pilot projects can reduce any market entry barrier for a certain vessel and operational area. These barriers can originate from interdependency, costs, uncertainty, the required assets, regulations and mindset. Pilots can significantly reduce the additional costs of climate-neutral sailing by tens of per cent, improving the market potential and creating opportunities for follow-ups, scale-ups and spin-offs. Furthermore, pilots can develop clear climate-neutral sailing practices, the new 'ways of doing', which articulates expectations and visions on a future climate-neutral cluster which makes investments less risky. It has therefore been demonstrated that subsidizing pilot projects through local governments can become a key enabler for shipping, since the global nature and complex governance structure make it difficult to initiate and accelerate the transition in other ways.

Understanding the roles of expectation in making the open Programmable Harbour City (OPHC)

ABSTRACT Despite over a decade of development, smart cities remain at a stage of visions and expectations. There is a dualist attitude in the smart cities literature, whereby the research either studies the content of visions or compares the visions with the innovation outcomes. What expectations actually do in a smart city innovation process is often neglected. This article addressed this gap by adopting an ethnographic approach and applying conceptual tools from the sociology of expectations and strategic niche management to study a UK smart city project – the Open Programmable Harbour City (OPHC). This study enriches the literature on smart city vision by showing that expectation played four complex and paradoxical roles in making the OPHC: (1) It tidied up the messy past and prescribed a future. (2) It provided limited coordination for innovation activities. (3) It helped to attract attentions to the OPHC, but it also caused disappointments. (4) It provided protection for the negative experimental results, but the overprotection also impeded innovation. This article concludes with four valuable lessons about expectation management for smart city innovators and some fresh theoretical insights for the sociology of expectations and strategic niche management.

Development of eco‐industrial parks in Ethiopia: The case of Hawassa Industrial Park

AbstractAs win‐win solutions at the park level, eco‐industrial parks (EIPs) have become the mainstream model to realize a sustainable transition of industrial parks in the world. However, few cases have been implemented in Africa, even though Africa is fertile ground for the growth of industrial parks. This study explores the transition process and outcome of a typical African industrial park—Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) in Ethiopia. We adopted the international framework for EIPs and applied the strategic niche management (SNM) framework to uncover the transition performance and process. This study shows that HIP's development is a clear articulation of implementing the sustainable development strategy and the industrial park development corporation's role. However, the analysis also identified limitations such as the impracticability of certain framework criteria and inapplicable indicators. Although HIP is still at the nascent stages of EIP implementation, we have found three critical factors for EIP development in Ethiopia from our preliminary observation. These include the importance of actors, the learning process, and having standards for an indicator system. These indicators are of exceptional value to Ethiopian researchers and practitioners in integrating sustainability into local economic development.

Examining the vehicle-to-grid niche in Australia through the lens of a trial project

Vehicle-to-grid is a promising source of the shallow storage needed for Australia’s energy transition. However, it is a niche innovation dependent on other new technologies. The paper describes the Australian vehicle-to-grid niche via examination of a trial and sets an agenda for niche development. The multi-level perspective provides understanding of the processes of socio-technical transitions and strategic niche management provides a tool for facilitating development and linking with policy. The study found that the Australian vehicle-to-grid niche is at an embryonic stage and is yet to stabilise into a dominant form. Variety and non-technical learning are lacking and expectations underestimate the significance of existing infrastructures and user factors as well as the scope of complementary technologies. Greater experimentation with users and installation premises are recommended, plus engaging more actors and intermediaries. The study concludes with directions for further research in multi-system interactions and transitions in importer countries like Australia.

Sustainable Transitions Narratives: An Analysis of the Literature through Topic Modelling

A large and fast-growing field of studies, known as sustainability transitions, emerged at the end of the 1990s, relying on a number of theoretical approaches. Transition management, strategic niche management, sociotechnical transition and technological innovation systems are among the most popular frameworks used to theorize sustainability transitions, although other approaches have been used as well. Our research analyses a specific corpus of text composed of approximately 3500 abstracts of papers collected in the Scopus database related to the term sustainability transition with the help of machine learning techniques. We explore related subfields of this literature, both related to theoretical framework or sectoral focus and their evolution across years and publication outlets, depicting different sustainability narratives.

Strategic Niche Management for Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review

With the aim of achieving a sustainable future, a new research area dealing with “sustainability transitions” has emerged. The focus on socio-technical niches and the related management activities are paramount to understand their aptitude to replace the dominant socio-technical regime. Strategic niche management (SNM) has become a renowned analytical framework for understanding the introduction and diffusion of very new sustainable innovations through societal experiments. With an emphasis on SNM, a systematic literature review (SLR) mainly looking at the environmental dimension of sustainability was carried out adopting the PRISMA statement. The increase in publications over the years, the enlargement of the geographical borders interested, the presence of points of reference in the literature, as well as the adaptability of the theoretical framework to both a generic and specific issue related to sustainability, demonstrate the centrality of SNM for studying the transition towards sustainability in socio-technical systems.

International cluster research progress on strategic niche management: a bibliometric citation big data computing analysis

PurposeTime analysis and institution analysis as well as journal analysis allow the study to show literature distribution in this research area. Research hotspots and trending among different times are revealed by network-structural properties and network-temporal property. The study aims to shed light on international cluster research progress on strategic niche management (SNM).Design/methodology/approachUsing searched literature data on SNM from 1991 to 2018 from the database of Web of Science (WOS), the article maps the citation network and completes the citation analysis based on bibliometric citation analysis.FindingsThese eight research streams reveal the development of SNM from theoretical description to target-oriented study and finally diversification analysis.Originality/valueThe paper identifies eight continuous research streams in SNM: sustainable transition, dynamical diversity, complexity, social-technical system, social innovation, social-cognitive evolution, emerging market and policy mix.

Understanding the scaling-up of a circular economy (CE) through a strategic niche management (SNM) theory: A socio-political perspective from Quebec

This paper examines the public policy mechanisms that are involved in the development of a circular economy (CE) in Quebec. The article uses an analytical framework of niche management to explore institutional frameworks in which the CE is expanding in Quebec. The data used for this analysis was collected through semi-structured interviews with 36 stakeholders involved in the CE project in the region of Kamouraska (Quebec). Our study reveals important changes to Quebec's regulations that encourage CE development. It underlines/emphasizes that coercive measures (laws and regulations) as well as incentives (public funding, fiscal measures, technical support, coordination, etc.) contribute to the adoption and dissemination of a CE. However, such public policy schemes have been supported by the collective and sustained commitment of economic and institutional actors in the territories. Consequently, the main difficulty in implementing these public policy schemes is trying to combine the multiple resources and skills of stakeholders operating at different spatial scales. As a result, a focus on local contexts and stakeholder values helps define and strengthen the strategic framework for a CE.

Design to market thinking: exploring the merits of strategic niche management in design thinking

ABSTRACT Sustainability transitions require that sustainable innovations develop and scale-up. Two promising approaches contribute to this purpose. Design thinking (DT) focuses on the creative development of sustainable innovations to achieve desirable, feasible and viable products. Strategic niche management (SNM) addresses how sustainable innovations should be deployed to the market. At first sight, these concepts seem to pursue a complementary mission, yet, academic literature has not explicitly addressed their complementary nature. Therefore, this paper addresses this gap by reviewing, proposing and empirically exploring the merits of SNM and how these can be used in DT through a workshop to increase successful market implementation of sustainable innovations. The study finds that SNM potentially helps the DT design process to (1) change market preconditions for the design, (2) create a protected niche for development, (3) establish a (long term) commercial viability, and (4) create an innovation development plan through definition of a set of testable propositions. The paper concludes that the inclusion of SNM into DT substantially increases the preparedness of an innovation team for a successful market implementation of sustainable innovations and coins the term ‘Design to Market Thinking’ for the integrated use of SNM in DT.

Challenges and dilemmas in strategic urban experimentationAn analysis of four cycling innovation living labs

Living labs have emerged as a form of strategic urban experimentation in sustainability transitions governance among policy makers and researchers. Limited attention has been given to the various challenges and dilemmas when doing LLs in relation to enabling urban transitions. This paper unpacks 16 challenges and dilemmas that arise for different actors in the process of living lab experimentation. The paper combines theoretical insights from Strategic Niche Management literature and insights from transdisciplinary research on living labs with empirical data from a qualitative case study analysis of four cycling innovation living labs in the Netherlands. By contrasting challenges and dilemmas identified in literature and those derived from our data, we reflect on key gaps between conceptual aspirations and empirical realities of strategic urban experimentation in sustainability transitions.

Blinded by the sun: The role of prosumers as niche actors in incumbent firms’ adoption of solar power during sustainability transitions

While extant research discusses how niche innovations develop in protected market niches and trigger regime shifts along sustainability transition pathways, we know less about the direct role of different niche actors as competitors in affecting regime incumbents’ investments in niche innovations. This study addresses this gap and builds on Strategic Niche Management and the Multi-level Perspective to distinguish two different niche actors: prosumers on the demand-side applying a niche innovation in a disruptive way to regime incumbents’ business model, and new entrants on the supply-side applying the niche innovation symbiotically with the regime. We examine incumbent responses to these different niche actors in different competitive and policy environments. Studying the United States’ electricity industry's sustainability transition toward solar from 2010-2017, we find that as more niche actors enter, regime incumbents are more likely to invest in the niche innovation, but the effect is influenced by policy and competitiveness of the environment. In competitive environments, incumbents are more likely to respond to disruptive niche actors (prosumers), while in traditional monopoly-like markets they are more likely to respond to symbiotic niche actors. We also find that the prosumer effect is stronger when the time that policies in support of the niche innovation have existed is shorter, indicating a potential substituting relationship of niche actors and policy. Our work contributes to the extant literature by demonstrating that the interplay between different niche actors needs to be understood within the context of policy, and that considering policy without accounting for the competitive environment may omit an important aspect of how regime actors become active participants in sustainability transitions.

Breaking Out of a Niche: Lessons for SMRs from Sustainability Transitions Studies

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are currently framed as a clean energy innovation with a vital role to play in decarbonizing power production. We review two popular sustainability transitions frameworks—strategic niche management and technological innovation systems— for case studies of analogous clean technology innovations. We focus on those that include policy-relevant recommendations that could be applied to the challenges posed by successfully scaling up SMRs from prototypes to commercial production. Particular attention is paid to how each approach understands the linkages between technology and the broader social and economic context. Innovative features of this paper include a systematic review of the lessons from renewable energy case studies for engagement with policy practitioners; reflections on the challenges of applying Euro-centric approaches in the sustainability transitions literature to non-European environments, including remote, northern, and indigenous communities; and some preliminary lessons for policy development that reflect the current situation with SMRs and support evidence-informed decision making in communities currently considering SMRs as part of a future clean energy mix.

The role of practice-based interventions in energy transitions: A framework for identifying types of work to scale up alternative practices

Practice-based interventions have recently emerged as one way to question established practices and experiment with new, less energy-intensive ones within households. Yet, how practice-based interventions contribute to energy transitions on a larger scale still awaits to answer. The challenge is that practices are embedded in local conditions and contexts; therefore, scaling up is not simply a matter of multiplying or transferring particular solutions at new sites and larger scales, but it requires dedicated work to translate and support the local reinvention of practices. Drawing on insights from Social Practice Theory, Strategic Niche Management and Institutional Entrepreneurship, we build a conceptual framework for analysing the types of work needed to scale up alternative, energy saving practices in practice-based interventions. Based on the empirical investigation of six European practice-based interventions and the work conducted by the organisers, researchers, participants and stakeholders of these interventions, we identified three types of work to scale up: (i) proximate work to make the practice transferable; (ii) work to gain allies and resonance for the practice; and (iii) work to shape the conditions for scaling up. The paper serves as a valuable resource for future interventions, providing a framework for researchers and practitioners to support scaling up of alternative practices for low-carbon energy transition.

Socio-technical transitions and innovation niches: the case of the virtual and augmented reality in Europe

<abstract> The paper investigates the socio-technical transition pathways related to innovation niches formation merging the theoretical framework of Strategic Niche Management (SNM) with the Social Network Analysis (SNA) technique. Specifically, focusing on the niche of the virtual and augmented reality, this work tries to shed light on the understanding of the niche development and the related transition towards sustainability. Combining SNM with SNA and utilizing a specific taxonomy, the study allows appreciating the actual cognitive interaction among niche members that determine the transition to succeed. Results show that the investigated niche is characterized by an embryonic stage of development which needs a better support to advance technological shift in order to reinforce the link between Industry 4.0 paradigm and Circular Economy (CE). </abstract>

Enhancing Quality of Life through Sustainable Urban Transformation in Cambodia: Introduction to the Build4People Project

This policy brief introduces preliminary research results of the Build4People project, funded by the German government as part of the multi-phase focus programme “Sustainable Development of Urban Regions”. Furthermore, the research agenda of the upcoming main four-year Research and Development phase (RD phase) will be introduced based on insights gained in previous shorter funding periods. The Build4People research consortium consists of representatives from four German universities and two German companies with their respective research, implementation and dissemination partners in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Build4People’s rationale is based on Phnom Penh‘s dynamic economic growth, which is coupled with a local urbanisation and construction boom. However, new buildings and neighbourhoods are rarely constructed in a sustainable way with direct and indirect negative environmental impacts. Issues of sustainability are hardly addressed by decision-makers in the construction sector, related ministries, city administrations or building users. The overall aim of the multi- and trans-disciplinary Build4People project during the RD phase is to support and analyse the transformative shift in Phnom Penh’s current business-as-usual urban development pathway towards a pathway with higher sustainability and liveability levels. The entry points for the research are the building and neighbourhood planning sectors. Methods, tools and key instruments to achieve the objectives of the RD phase are collaborative planning workshops, strategic niche management approaches, transition management approaches and subsequent experimental implementation. All of these measures will generate applied knowledge for local stakeholders and a basis for evidence-based decision-making. Urban quality of life as a people-driven approach serves as the integrating link for all of our scientific, conceptional, analytical and normative dimensions. During our research, we will jointly conceptualize, measure and model urban quality of life and consider its political dimension and its often-ambiguous relationship to sustainability.

Local Energy Projects on Islands: Assessing the Creation and Upscaling of Social Niches

Islands have great potential for renewable energy, and several pilot and experimental projects have been set up on islands globally, aiming to promote clean energy and self-sufficiency. Many of these decentralized energy initiatives oppose the established regimes of centralized electricity generation and introduce new forms of organization and management. Thus, they can be considered social niches. The aim of the present study is to explore the transition potential of renewable energy projects on three islands located in southern Europe. The analysis mobilizes literature on the strategic niche management theory (SNM) with a focus on the role of the various actors and the different management models. Through a systematic analysis of policy documents and the literature, enriched by interviews, the paper identifies different types of renewable energy projects and discusses the potential for scale up. The paper concludes that these projects are currently in the inter-local phase, and decentralization is not only an important innovation for energy production, but also a new form of energy management often dominated by different actors than the established electricity system.

No legitimacy: A study of private sector sanitation development in the Global South

What is needed for the private sector to successfully establish itself as a key player in delivering sustainable sanitation in the Global South? The present paper aims to offer some answers to this through the case of Peepoople AB, a company delivering a single-use biodegradable toilet bag in informal settlements. The company aimed to but failed in combining sustainable development of sanitation and financial gain for investors. We suggest that explanations for the failure can be found in the interaction between the company and the development– and aid organisations already involved in sanitation development. Through Strategic Niche Management, we look at whether the company managed to create relevant social networks, expectation dynamics and learning processes. The company gained legitimacy with end users, but failed to gain legitimacy in the development sector as it did not prioritise the kind of learning and competence considered relevant in the sector.

Competition and the Rapid Scaling of Niche Innovations: The Case of Southeast Asia’s Ride-Hailing Industry (2012–2019)

Radical niche innovations by digital sharing economy start-ups in urban mobility have undergone unprecedented, rapid upscaling in user adoption across global cities. How these niche innovations can scale fast through competition between the niche actors remains understudied in the strategic niche management literature. Through a case analysis of the digital ride-hailing industry in Southeast Asia across six countries, we explore how four niche actors—Grab, EasyTaxi, Uber and Gojek—rapidly scaled ride-hailing innovations in less than seven years. The case analysis revealed that niche competition between market entrants and the underlying support of venture capital funding played important roles in accelerating socio-technical transition processes. We contribute a deeper understanding of rapid socio-technical transitions enabled by digital technology, particularly on the active and innovating role that regime actors play in transition dynamics.

The Zero Waste University Program in Mexico: A Model for Grassroots Innovations in Sustainability

Grassroots innovations for sustainability can take various forms, including novel models for comprehensive waste management. This article examines the contributions of the University Solid Waste Management Program with a Zero Waste approach, a grassroots innovation established by the community of a university campus associated with a non-governmental organization. The program was developed in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in a political and economic context marked by unsustainable and inequitable practices, but with a long history of social struggle for the construction of alternatives. In analytical terms, we study the formation and mutual influence of the sustainability niches of both organizations from the perspective of strategic niche management theory, as well as the benefits resulting from such development.