Comment on 'Techno therapy or nurtured niches?' by Hommels et al. [Res. Policy 36 (7) (2007)]

The views of Hommels et al. on two policy approaches for radical innovations that include PROTEE approach and strategic niche management (SNM) are discussed. SNM is about socially desirable innovations, oriented towards for instance long-term goals such as sustainability and it also addresses system innovations and transitions, where novelties have to fight against existing systems and often face a mis-match with regard to existing infrastructure, user practices, and regulations. SNM investigates which designs of experimental projects work well and which not. Recent SNM studies have developed a view on how to overcome obduracy. This view focuses on studying sequences of projects, relationships between niches and regimes, the emergence of longer-term learning trajectories and transition pathways. SNM is based on path dependence and one of the problems of models of path dependency is that they usually ignore the role of agency.