Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management: different but complementary approaches

This discussion paper sets out to compare two different, yet related, approaches to achieve sustainable development and (technological) innovation. Strategic Niche Management (SNM) (Kemp, Schot et al. 1998; Weber 1999) emerged as a novel concept by the end of the 1990’s and is presented as a research model and policy tool to manage technological innovation within so-called niches. SNM is based on the multi-level conceptualization of socio-technical regimes, embedded in a slowly changing landscape and influenced by emerging niches. Transition management (TM) (Rotmans, Kemp et al. 2000; Rotmans, Kemp et al. 2001; Rotmans 2003; Loorbach and Rotmans 2006) was for the first time defined in 2000 as a policy or governance approach and later developed into a policy model to deal with long-term desired change and sustainable development. TM is based on the analytical concept of transitions as structural changes in complex (societal) systems and has been developed into an operational policy-approach.