Bypass, repurpose, weaken: a mechanism-based typology of niche strategies for niche actors under regime lock-in, illustrated through electric motorcycle adoption in Kenya

Sustainability transitions scholarship has developed two largely parallel analytical vocabularies: one explaining how incumbent regimes become locked in, the other how niche actors respond. This paper connects them through a framework of regime lock-in profile- strategy alignment. Nested within the Multi-Level Perspective, it characterizes regime lock-ins by tractability, materiality, coordination requirement, and coupling intensity, with regime coherence as a context-level modifier; and then introduces bypass-repurpose-weaken (BRW) typology that classifies niche strategies by the functional mechanism through which they engage regime lock-ins based on their structural profiles. A six-step operational protocol is further proposed, and the framework’s central proposition is empirically illustrated through an embedded case study of Roam, an electric motorcycle manufacturer in Kenya's boda boda sector. The case provides pattern-consistent support for the proposition: bypass clusters around material, tractable lock-ins; weaken around less material, tractable lock-ins; and repurpose where existing regime elements remain redirectable. The resulting pathway is characterised as bounded leapfrogging. Portability across regime configurations is specified analytically, while comparative testing remains necessary before prescriptive claims can be validated.