Strategic Niche Management for Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

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.