A strategic niche management perspective on transitions to eco-industrial park development: A systematic review of case studies

In recent decades, industrial park (IP) development has been an important practice for regional economic development for various geographies. Eco-industrial park (EIP) development, on the other hand, has been proposed as an alternative, considering environmental problems raised from the high number of agglomerated industries in IPs. Although there are some quite progressive EIP experiences that are globally distributed, IP development remains the mainstream industrial agglomeration model and has not yet experienced a transition into EIP development. The purpose of this article is both to understand and shed some light on how such a transition can be achieved through lessons from the EIP cases in the existing state of the art and to establish a research agenda that would elaborate on sustainability transitions into EIP development. To achieve these aims, a systematic literature review involving a case survey is conducted. A theoretical framework with an evolutionary perspective is developed drawing on EIP literature and strategic niche management (SNM) framework from sustainability transitions research. This connects two streams of research that have not been closely associated in the past. While synthesising 104 EIP cases from 24 countries, three analytical processes of SNM are considered: (i) articulation of expectations and visions, (ii) building of social networks, and (iii) learning activities. This article also discusses the development of local EIP experiments and EIP niche formation at different geographies. Based on this synthesis, policy implications are suggested and research implications are provided, stressing critical and interesting issues that have not yet had an explicit focus in the literature. This article enables cross-fertilisation across globally distributed EIP cases while adding to the critical mass in leveraging EIP development.