Compare methods

	Transition Management	Strategic Niche Management
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2001	1998
Originator	Jan Rotmans, René Kemp & Derk Loorbach	René Kemp, Johan Schot & Remco Hoogma
Type	Prescriptive, complexity-based governance framework	Conceptual framework and analytic method for managing innovation niches
Seminal source	Loorbach, D. (2010). Transition management for sustainable development: a prescriptive, complexity-based governance framework. Governance, 23(1), 161-183.	Kemp, R., Schot, J., & Hoogma, R. (1998). Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of niche formation: the approach of strategic niche management. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 10(2), 175-198.
Aliases	TM, Transition governance framework, Transition arena approach	SNM, Niche management approach, Protective space analysis
Related	4	4
Summary	Transition Management (TM) is a prescriptive, complexity-based governance framework for deliberately steering long-term, structural change in sociotechnical systems toward sustainability. Rather than predicting or controlling outcomes, it organises a cyclical, participatory process—strategic, tactical, operational, and reflexive activities—through which a small group of frontrunners develops shared long-term visions, translates them into agendas and coalitions, mobilises experiments, and continuously monitors and learns. It applies insights from transitions research to the question of how societies might govern their own transformations.	Strategic Niche Management (SNM) is a framework for understanding and supporting the early development of radical, sustainable innovations by nurturing them in protected spaces—niches—shielded from the full selection pressure of the prevailing market and regime. It zooms into the niche level of transition theory and identifies three internal processes that determine whether an innovation gathers momentum: the articulation of expectations and visions, the building of broad social networks, and learning across multiple dimensions through real-world experiments.