Strategic Niche Management

Eco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the adoption of such business strategies is still very limited because it often involves significant corporate, cultural and regulatory barriers. An important challenge is not only to conceive eco-efficient PSS concepts, but also to understand the contextual conditions that facilitate their societal embedding, and which strategies and development pathways are the most appropriate.
The combination of theoretical insights from innovation studies (in particular Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management) and a case studies research (exploring the innovation journeys made by six companies in introducing their eco-efficient PSS innovations in the market) is used to investigate the factors that influence the implementation and diffusion of this kind of innovations. The article provides a structured overview of these factors, grouping them in four clusters: implementation of socio-technical experiments; establishment of a broad network of actors; building up of a shared project vision; creation of room for broad and reflexive learning processes.
Based on these results it is argued that a broader and more strategic system approach should be adopted by companies. Companies should focus not only on the PSS solution and its value chain, but also on the contextual conditions that may favour or hinder the societal embedding of the PSS itself. The article concludes by outlining a key area for future research.

Cities play a crucial role in shaping coupled human-environment systems at local and global scales. With a view to amounting sustainability deficits, urban stakeholders thus require transformative capacity to perform radical change within and across the multiple socio-ecological and socio-technical systems embedded in cities. However, existing (transformative) ‘capacity’ concepts refer to distinct subjects and purposes and do not adequately address the particularities of urban contexts and/or practical operationalization. Therefore, this paper suggests an integrated conceptual framework for developing ‘urban transformative capacity’, drawing on contributions from a range of research areas. It identifies 10 key components and a range of factors that describe the forms of agency and interaction, development processes and relational dimensions involved in building up urban transformative capacity, emphasizing the vital role of place and scale in this. It thus establishes a baseline and direction for capacity growth. This allows recognizing the particular requirements and assets of diverse types of cities and urban contexts in the global North and South, and offers strategic orientation for urban policy making, planning practice and research.

Unsustainability is a big problem, but the answer is not going to be a singular kind of, or sudden, change. This article argues for multi-level strategies of sustainable design. It explains the ways in which current sustainable design tends to be misguided in 4 distinct ways, and then proposes 4 other forms of sustainable design that should be more adequate strategies. These draw on the examples of Niche Management, DESIS, Transition Design and the Urmadic University. The paper concludes with a 5 form of radical sustainable design; forceful critique of existing unsustainable designing.

Use of climate-related technologies such as solar PV is beneficial to climate change mitigation, and also to, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Based on this, this study draws from the Strategic Niche Management framework, to examine and assess the dominant expectations driving the use of solar PV in Nigeria. Three main expectations targeted at - energy security, market development and, climate change and sustainable development - were identified as the dominant expectations held by actor-networks. The study finds that the varying levels of deficiency in collectivity, specificity, robustness and quality of the three expectations, have contributed to slow growth in use of solar PV in Nigeria.

The Product-Service System (PSS) concept represents, theoretically and practically, a promising model to steer our production and consumption systems towards sustainability. PSSs are business models based on selling performance (i.e. results) rather than products. They can provide a range of economic and competitive advantages and, if properly designed, can support the dematerialisation of economy and hence provide environmental benefits.
However, it must be stressed that the uptake of this business concept by companies is still very limited. The key problem is that sustainable PSSs can be considered radical innovations. They may require a profound redefinition of the production and consumption modalities and hence their implementation may cope with the current and dominant socio-technical systems. In other words they may challenge existing customer habits, organisational structures and regulative frameworks. For this reason the introduction and scaling-up of such innovations are not completely under the control of a company (or a small network of actors), because changes in the factors that form the boundary conditions (i.e. existing organisations, institutions and networks that share dominant practices, rules and interests), are also required.
Although the concept of sustainable PSS has been discussed in the literature for over a decade, not much attention has been devoted to understand how the process of introduction and scaling-up takes place and how it can be managed and oriented. There is therefore a knowledge gap regarding the mechanism and factors driving the implementation and diffusion of this kind of innovations and, consequently, there is a lack of strategies, approaches and tools to enable project managers, management consultants and strategic designers in designing and managing this process. The research presented in this book aims at tackling these issues and in particular at answering the following questions: How sustainable Product-Service System can be introduced and scaled-up? How this transition process can be designed, managed and oriented?
The book seeks to answer these challenges by integrating concepts and insights from two research streams: one on Product-Service System (PSS) design and the other on transition studies. In particular the book, through industrial case studies and an action research project, explores and delineates the role of strategic design in supporting the introduction and scaling-up of sustainable PSS innovations.
A new strategic design role thus emerges, a role in which the ideation and development of sustainable PSS concepts is coupled with the designing of appropriate transition paths to gradually incubate, introduce and diffuse these innovations. A key role in these transition paths is given to the implementation of socio-technical experiments: protected spaces where radical innovations can be tested, become more mature, and potentially challenge and change dominant socio-technical practices, habits and institutions. The book contributes to clarify how these socio-technical experiments can act as incubators where PSS innovation can start, proliferate and develop. In particular the book focuses on the role of experiments as Labs (to test, learn and improve the PSS innovation on multiple dimensions and involving a multiplicity of actors), Windows (to raise interest on the innovation project and the related actors, disseminate results, build-up synergies with existing similar projects/initiatives, and attract and enrol new actors), and Agents of change (to influence contextual conditions in order to favour and hasten the societal embedding process).

This dissertation investigates emerging Alternative Agro Food Systems (AAFSs) in Turkey and does so by focusing on three niche initiatives in İzmir. Building on Regime Theory and the Multi-Level Perspective, it views these initiatives as strategic niches and explores their development processes by documenting their socio-technical practices.
Thus, this thesis fulfills the understanding of newly emerging alternatives and their transformation in Turkey with regard to their development processes in İzmir. Through exploratory qualitative multiple case study, this dissertation provided a meso-level investigation, documentation of the agro food system and micro-level investigation of Alternative Agro Food Initiatives in Turkey. A micro-level exploration
is undertaken by three niche initiatives in İzmir; (a) producer initiated Alternative Agro Food Niche- Gödence Cooperative, (b) consumer initiated Alternative Agro Food Niche- BİTOT and (c) producer-consumer collaborated Alternative Agro Food Niche-Foça Earth Market. Case studies, which are explored in İzmir, have provided a city-level investigation through examination of role of İzmir in the emergence and development of alternative agro food niches.
Case studies reveal characteristics and development processes of alternative food initiatives. Gödence revealed a niche that shows a degree of compatibility with the incumbent regime. This compatibility blunted the innovative capacity of the niche due to several structural reasons and path-dependencies. Stabilizing path-dependencies created
tendencies which restrain the diffusion of socio-technical practices. On the other hand, BİTOT and Foça Earth Market formed new niches. The creativity, talent to widen voluntarism and existing networks of Buğday Association provides BİTOT a web of volunteers to create, design and apply socio-technical practices. Foça Earth Market’s unique innovation capacity is lying under its artifice to use incumbent regime institutions
to create alternative socio-technical practices. The flexibility in the Foça Niche to motivate actors including those from mainstream regime has contributed to the innovative capacity of the initiative.

Bottom-up and practice-based social innovations need to be incorporated in an integrated manner to achieve the required paradigm shift for energy system change. This Deliverable asks “how can new technologies and practices be best supported/disseminated to achieve ‘lift-off’ and impact?” Innovation studies approaches, including Strategic Niche Management thinking have been applied. Innovation needs, and specific and tailored innovation responses have been identified for 4 of the ENTRUST communities of practice; these are Stockbridge, Le Trapèze, Secondigliano and Dunmanway. Outcomes point to new policy mixes and practice-based changes at the community level to inform innovation pathways for each community.

The agro-food system needs a genuine sustainability transition to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security in the face of climate change, population growth, ecosystem degradation and increasing resource scarcity. Agro-food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes needed to move towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. There is a broad range of theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have been used to understand and promote transition towards sustainability. These include the multi-level perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions, transition management (TM), strategic niche management (SNM), technological innovation system (TIS) and social practice approach (SPA). The paper analyses the use of these heuristic frameworks in research on agro-food sustainability transitions. A search carried out in March 2018 on Scopus yielded 791 documents , and 127 research articles underwent a systematic review. Results show that more than three-fifths of research papers dealing with sustainability transitions in agriculture, food processing, distribution and consumption use at least one of the five heuristic frameworks (MLP, TM, SNM, TIS and SPA). The MLP is the most prominent framework in research on agro-food sustainability transitions, followed by TM, SPA, SNM and then TIS. Nevertheless, MLP is increasingly complemented with frameworks that focus on human-related and social factors (SPA), management and governance (TM, SNM) or agency and interactions between actors (TIS) in sustainability transitions processes. Therefore, the paper makes the case for more integration of transition frameworks in order to better nurture and foster transitions towards sustainable agro-food systems.

Sustainable development at a global and local scale heavily depends upon the pathways taken by cities in the near future. Within scientific research, this frequently identified " urban challenge " has been recognized and addressed increasingly in urban studies, as well as in transformation studies. However, while both fields clearly overlap and effectively complement each other in this regard, the respective epistemic communities have largely remained separate so far. Therefore, this paper elaborates on the core concepts and approaches that dominate the emerging scientific debate on the role of cities in sustainability transitions. Based on a methodic literature review, it delineates the progressive convergence of the diverse disciplines involved over four major research perspectives. It equally derives key conclusions for future research and policy, highlighting the urgent need to connect the four fields identified, to link socio-technical and social-ecological system (SES) perspectives, to conceive of holistic innovations for developing new planning approaches, and to fully embrace transdisciplinarity by practicing science in society.

This paper discusses the crucial role cities play in the emergence and formation of grassroots socio-technical niches for sustainability transitions. Drawing on research engaged with strategic niche management, grassroots innovations and urban social innovations, it conceptualizes the interdependencies between urban contexts and grassroots niche dynamics, and explores a critical case in point: Current policy efforts in the city of Seoul to create, diversify and network social innovations in urban neighborhoods. The case illustrates how innovative place-making activities in everyday-life urban environs draws on empowerment, proximity and institutional thickness to meet basic conditions for niche formation in terms of networking, shared expectations and social learning, while also raising new issues of inclusion, legitimacy and strategy. In conclusion, four issues are highlighted that appear to decisively impact on the formation of urban grassroots niche and related sustainability transition pathways: 1) Urban empowerment capacities, 2) Embedded holistic innovation, 3) Novel community-oriented governance modes, and 4) Urban niche/regime interactions. These issues thus require particular attention in future research and policy in order to guide the coevolution of cities and urban grassroots initiatives towards sustainability.

Based on a review of the main premises and assumptions of transition theory, it is concluded that the case of the circular economy neatly fits into the predefined characteristics of a transition. It is thus rational to use the framework of transition theory to analyse the transition towards a circular economy in Europe. The conducted literature review has demonstrated that the circular transition in Europe is currently in a process called the 'innovation journey', which means that a new socio-technological system with an emphasis on reuse, recycling, refurbishing, and remanufacturing is currently emerging. Strategic niche management was selected as the most suitable governance approach to accelerate this process.

Eco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because eco-efficient PSS are intrinsically radical innovations, that challenge existing customers’ habits (cultural barriers), companies’ organizations (corporate barriers) and regulative framework (regulative barriers). Because of these multi-dimensional changes, eco-efficient PSS can be considered complex and highly uncertain innovations, and therefore difficult to be predicted, planned and managed. Therefore the challenge is not only to conceive eco-efficient PSS concepts, but also to understand which are the most effective strategies to introduce and diffuse these concepts in the market.
Bringing together insights from innovation sciences (in particular transition management, strategic niche management and radical innovation studies), the paper puts forward an approach through which effectively manage the implementation and diffusion of eco-efficient PSS innovations.
Starting from these results the paper outlines the implications on the design level. A new different role for design emerges. A role that may potentially opens new fields of activity alongside the consolidated ones. A role in which design is not only aimed at defining sustainable PSS concept but it is also aimed at promoting, facilitating and setting- up the conditions for implementing and diffusing this kind of innovations.

The paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of renewable energy (RE) initiatives in Oman. The principal analytical tool is strategic niche management, an approach rooted in evolutionary innovations theory. The analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of RE initiatives is based on three internal dynamic processes: learning processes, actors' networking, and articulation of visions. This study draws upon secondary data and primary information collected from interviews, with stake-holders representing five selected RE initiatives in Oman. The findings indicate that RE initiatives, if managed properly, can drive large-scale implementation of RE in Oman. There are signs that the networks of actors, although small, are growing. Expectations, although fragmented, are high, positive and diverse. Learning processes do exist but are limited, narrowly techno-economic, and do not encompass social and institutional aspects surrounding new technologies. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to overcome weaknesses observed in studied renewable energy initiatives. Keywords Renewable energy initiatives · Strengths · Weaknesses · Strategic niche management · Policies · Oman

The literature of Strategic Niche Management has rarely discussed how the SNM policies come to amend the existing policies. Through an in-depth study on the development of electric vehicles fi eld in Finland, we show, fi rstly, how niche actors mobilize protection by policies for their technology through systematic expectations work, and, secondly, how the politicians strategically select technologies to be protected. By zooming in on the emergence and impact of two major policy initiatives, we show that systematic expectations work is characterized by the credibility of enactors and expectations, as well as systematic advocacy and publicity work. We contribute to the SNM literature by showing how policy actions develop through systematic expectations work, as well as continued interaction between enactors and selectors within well-functioning public-private arenas.

Sustainability requires radical innovations, but their introduction and diffusion usually encounter the opposition of existing socio-technical regimes. An important challenge is, therefore, to understand how to catalyse and support the process of transitioning towards these innovations. Building upon insights from transition studies (in particular the concepts of Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management), and through an action research project (aimed at designing, introducing and diffusing a sustainable mobility system in the suburban areas of Cape Town), the paper investigates the role of design in triggering and orienting societal transformations. A key role is given to the implementation of socio-technical experiments. A new socio-technical system design role emerges: a role in which the ideation and development of sustainable innovation concepts is coupled with the designing of appropriate transition paths to gradually incubate, introduce and diffuse these concepts.

The literature of Strategic Niche Management has rarely discussed how the SNM policies come to amend the existing policies. Through an in-depth study on the development of electric vehicles field in Finland, we show, fi rstly, how niche actors mobilize protection by policies for their technology through systematic expectations work, and, secondly, how the politicians strategically select technologies to be protected. By zooming in on the emergence and impact of two major policy initiatives,
we show that systematic expectations work is characterized by the credibility of enactors and expectations, as well as systematic advocacy and publicity work. We contribute to the SNM literature by showing how policy actions develop through systematic expectations work, as well as continued interaction between enactors and selectors within well-functioning public-private arenas.

Keywords: Electric vehicles, strategic niche management, expectations

In this article, we analyse how situated learning influences niche development. Situated learning is tied to social action and context, perceiving knowledge and learning as socially constructed. In addition, a dialectic view of structure and agency is adopted. Policymaking is used as an example of a community. A qualitative case study of Finnish energy policy is presented. The regime in Finland is the electricity industry that supports bioenergy, while wind energy development is supported by active individuals and a few niche actors. The full-members of the policymaking community consist of the government and the regime actors. The niche actors did learn how the community functions and developed alternative strategies accordingly, but without success. A reason could be that the niche actors excluded the regime from their strategies. We conclude that situated learning is likely to enhance niche development, but compromises in niche development may be needed.

Gegenstand des Projektkberichts ist die Zusammenarbeit von Stiftungen und Staat auf dem Gebiet der Schulreform.

Es geht dabei um die Frage, welche Rolle sektor-übergreifende Netzwerke für Innovationsprozesse in komplexen sozialen Systemen wie dem Schulbereich spielen.

Darüber hinaus wird die Anwendbarkeit des ‚Strategischen Nischenmanagements‘ auf Phänomene sozialer Innovation demonstriert.

The present paper analyzes how the experiment conducted by the US Government’s National
Renewable Energy Research Laboratory (NREL) on algal oil as biodiesel influenced the development of
the biodiesel technology. The research, known as the Aquatic Species Program (ASP), was funded by US
Department of Energy with an objective of determining the technological, environmental and economical
feasibility of using high-oil algae for biodiesel. The discussion is limited on the United States transportation
sector during the year of 1978 to the present. Using a Strategic Niche Management (SNM) approach, we
examine actors’ expectations, their social networks, and methods of learning processes on algae
technology.
Keywords: Algal oil, strategic niche management, NREL, and aquatic species program

A B S T R A C T According to sustainability transitions theories, innovation policies should create protective spaces ('niches') for promising new technologies. Moreover they should support a cumulative process of market formation and growth. Based on results from comparative case studies of two competing technological innovation systems for heavy transport (biogas and electrification), this paper argues that these recommendations are contradictory when technology alternatives with different degrees of maturity compete for the same niche. Should innovation policies open up the niche for the promising but immature alternative, or should they continue to support the technology that already has attained a niche position? If this contradiction remains unsolved, there is a risk for conflicts that block the progress of both alternatives. The paper suggests that there is a need for differentiated policies to resolve the contraction. In order to facilitate further development of both systems, the paper suggests that niche nurturing for immature systems needs to be combined with redeployment into new market segments for more mature systems.

The necessity for system innovation is well acknowledged, but inducing system change proves to be very difficult. Three approaches have been developed for analysing and supporting radical innovations: Socrobust, Create Acceptance and Strategic Niche Management. This paper gives an overview of these complementary approaches and their theoretical background. The paper also identifies several potential contributions for social scientists to contribute

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.