Mapping the Innovation Ecosystems for the Deployment of Small Modular Reactors in Canada and Mexico: An Innovation Policy Approach Through Strategic Niche Management and Social Network Analysis.
Date
2023-04-28
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0009-0006-8021-2231
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) have received considerable attention as their specific designs reduce implementation times and costs, allowing modularity to increase the installed capacity for energy generation. Although SMRs represent a reliable, affordable, and sustainable alternative to meet our growing energy demands, this technology faces deployment obstacles that may require outside interventions to speed up their adoption so that people can enjoy their societal, environmental and economic benefits. Just as a country´s best energy mix approach varies by resource availability and institutional capabilities, the actors promoting SMR adoption constitute an innovation ecosystem uniquely responsive to country-specific characteristics. This thesis uses a Strategic Niche Management (SNM) framework that proposes interventions in protected spaces to determine the optimal conditions for successful deployment and appropriate policy while consolidating a community of early adopters.
Through Social Network Analysis (SNA), this thesis compares how these SMR innovation ecosystems are formed in Canada and Mexico, highlighting structural differences between developed and developing countries. This primary framework and research method are then complemented with the Helix Model IV for a comprehensive review of the governance of SMR innovation ecosystems. Policy and network structures are assumed to have a feedback loop effect on each other and SMR deployment potential. Secondary data were collected from publicly available information and processed under the software Gephi 9.5.
Contrary to most research, which focuses solely on centralized actors in a network, this thesis explores the contributions of both centralized and peripheral actors to the network, so policymakers can discern where to efficiently allocate resources depending on their intervention objectives and their main focus. Results indicate that the Mexican SMR ecosystem, with its visually different network structure in all the snapshots, is more vulnerable than the Canadian ecosystem. This difference is especially apparent in the scene where five of the most centralized actors are removed from the two SMR ecosystems.
Description
Keywords
Technology Deployment, Small Modular Reactors, Strategic Niche Management, Social Network Analysis, Innovation Policy, Governance
Citation
Degree
Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.)
Department
Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
Program
Public Policy