With the aim to achieve a sustainable future, the field of transition studies has recently received increasing attention. Transition thinking and transition management have even been provided with a prominent spot in strategies and policies of a growing number of countries. However, though various approaches to study transitions (in particular, sustainability transitions) have been discussed and used in the past, an overview of these - with their advantages and disadvantages - has not been provided yet Furthermore, linkages between these approaches have also not been provided in a single overview. This article fills that gap in literature on transitions. It starts with the emergence of the "transition" concept and follows it to the notion of "sustainability transitions". Next, the article reviews approaches to study transitions. Thereafter, the paper provides some general criticism as well as strengths and contributions from transition research approaches to provide an impetus towards further research in this field. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.