Blockchain technology can be transformational to a lot of business sectors. Businesses have attempted to extract value from blockchain technology but failed to do so. An unexplored blockchain business initiative is Tokenized Ecosystems. Startups using Tokenized Ecosystems have the potential to disrubt incumbent businesses. Yet, it is unclear how they should react. A structured approach to assess whether a business should apply Tokenized Ecosystems to their business processes is lacking. This thesis proposes such a structured approach: a Tokenized Ecosystems assessment tool for business processes. A design science approach is used and gathered insights from academic literature are confronted with empirical evidence. Eight of the most outstanding and globally renowned blockchain and tokenization industry experts and thought leaders were interviewed.

The competiveness between businesses is continuously increasing and multi-sided platforms seek to reduce cost, increase efficiency and improve the quality of products and services. This research explored the role of blockchain technology as a driver for business model innovation of multi-sided platforms. This case study contributed to scientific literature by analysing how blockchain technology can be used by multi-sided platforms. The interview results were used to design a decentralized business model for Peerby. This business model facilitates the sharing of goods between individuals. The research outcomes reveal that multi-sided platforms can use blockchain technology as a driver for business model innovation. Business models need to be both viable and feasible to function in a market. However, the early stage of development of blockchain technology comes with barriers for large-scale diffusion. Therefore, a business model stress test workshop was organized that revealed how uncertainties, relating to market, society and regulation, affect the decentralized business model. The research outcomes are relevant for peer-to-peer multi-sided platforms within the sharing economy. This case study could be used as a framework for a whitepaper that describes how multi-sided platforms intend to use blockchain technology to benefit their users. This research takes a novel approach to business modelling research, which will be introduced as business model decentralization.

Today, mortgage originators are under a significant amount of pressure. Following the Basel IV accord, mortgage originators (Dutch banks: ING, ABN, AMRO, and Rabobank) must hold more capital reserves to create a buffer for difficult financial times. Possessing these extra capital reserves comes with the expense of sustaining current economic performance. Off-balance securitisation in combination with blockchain technology can be used to decrease capital on the balance from the originators and thereby cut costs. Furthermore, blockchain and smart contract technology may make it possible to bundle forces in a distributed network and automate the transaction and controlling steps and thus reduce the transaction costs, time, and risks in the securitisation business process. The objective of the study is to help these financial institutions identify and analyse the opportunities of blockchain technologies in the business process of securitising mortgages. This research uses an explorative design approach which employs the information system framework of Hevner et al. to create the first business process model notation (BPMN) model of this business process. This research aims to build a bridge between non-technical and technical decision makers to accelerate blockchain innovation in the mortgage securitisation process. The study is supported by six interviews and four discussions with experts in the field of securitisation and blockchain technology. The viable BPMN model determined that blockchain is able to transform the securitisation industry, but not with a public and permissionless network.

Venture capital (VC) and startups are a natural duo. While startups create disruptive and incremental innovations with their technical and creative expertise, many lack the financial resources to grow their company. VC funds provide this needed finance – in addition to business acumen – in exchange for an equity share of their company, with the hope that this risky investment will produce a significant return. Though the importance of adequate VC stimulation in the startup community is well discussed and agreed upon by many studies, as a theoretical concept, ecosystems of VC remain underdeveloped, making it difficult to comprehend how a VC ecosystem works, and more importantly, how to improve one. Nations hope to improve their VC activity and therefore their global competitiveness, by consulting the current VC literature and other comparative VC publications (scoreboards, case studies and regional benchmarks), but these do not approach VC from an ecosystem perspective, which might explain the discrepancy in their results and conclusions. The absence of an ecosystem perspective in VC literature, results in a lack of a holistic understanding of the mechanisms of a venture capital ecosystem (VCE). Consequently, this shortage of comprehension might explain why current studies do not provide the reasons for the shortcoming of the Dutch VCE. This is the first study to take the ecosystem perspective of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) theory in the field of VC and seeks to answer the following main research question: How can the Dutch venture capital be improved through a conceptual model, which explains the determinants influencing the development of a venture capital ecosystem?

This research evaluates the Pollution Haven Hypothesis for the chemical sector across the globe. It does so by creating a regression model which incorporates five constructs (market potential, infrastructure, factor cost, governance factors and a measure of environmental stringency) to explain the variance of foreign direct investment (FDI) across countries specified for the chemical sector. The results are by no means unequivocally for or against a confirmation of the pollution haven hypothesis, but the evidence suggests a negative effect of the measure of environmental stringency when FDI is specified further to only the manufacture of chemical products and sampled by averaging as much annual FDI data as the dataset includes.

The electrification ratio of Sumba Island has been increased in the past five years from about 24.5% in 2010 to about 43% 2015 in which 55% of the share supplied by renewable energy resources (Hivos, 2015). Despite the progress on electrification ratio, there are still about 238 out of 433 villages which do not have electricity access (PLN, 2017). It is because some of these villages are located in remote areas which have limited access to infrastructures, such as roads and grid access. Currently, the rural households in Sumba Island use fossil fuel to provide their electricity needs. However, the use of fossil fuel is considered polluting, noisy, and expensive. Thus, renewable energy-based power generation needs to be introduced. While wind and hydropower could be very attractive for grid-connected options, off-grid solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems stand out as the best solution for off-grid electrification because of Sumba’s dispersed population and limited infrastructure. Several off-grid PV projects have been carried out by the government as well as private institutions. However, the adoption of off-grid PV technologies for Sumba’s rural areas remains very slow. From the literature, it is known that the role of business model to overcome challenges of the adoption of off-grid PV electrification in rural areas is considered important. However, there is still no literature which explains how a sustainable business model helps to overcome the barriers faced by PV projects in the rural energy market. An exploratory study using desk research and cases study from seven different PV companies are used to understand how PV companies choose types of business models to address the challenges in the rural energy market. Then, this insight will be used to develop advices on business models for PV companies who want to operate their business in the rural energy market in Sumba Island, Indonesia. In this study, We developed a framework which explains the linkage between the barriers faced by PV companies in rural areas in developing countries and how the business model could help the companies to overcome these barriers. By using this framework, we discovered suitable business models which could be implemented by PV companies in rural areas in Sumba Island. Firstly, it is the distributor model which offers various PV products. Secondly, it is the distributor model which offers electricity services delivered by a microgrid. Finally, study limitations and recommended future studies were offered to improve the framework developed from this study.

Many start-ups face difficulty raising sufficient funds at the early stage of their businesses. Traditionally, entrepreneurs raise capital from friends and family, angel investment, venture capital or bank loans. However, with the development of Internet platforms, alternative finance methods have arisen. Entrepreneurs are starting to look for financial help from crowdfunding platforms, at the same time, more people from the general public with extra money starting to invest on crowdfunding websites.

This research focuses on equity crowdfunding, an emerging entrepreneurial finance alternative. Equity crowdfunding has only existed since 2011 in Europe. There is limited research about equity crowdfunding worldwide, let alone research about crowdfunding in the Netherlands. Based on the “lemon market” theory from Akerlof (1970), information asymmetry would harm the market and lead to market shrink or even failure. This research is intended to reduce information asymmetry in equity crowdfunding ecosystem, in an aim to promote equity crowdfunding in the Netherlands.

There are two types of information asymmetry being mitigated in this research. The information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and investors can be mitigated by an assessment tool. The assessment tool was developed by first compiling 11 success factors of equity crowdfunding from 5 key literature sources. Then a selection of success factors was discussed before a draft assessment tool is developed. This draft assessment tool is validated later by entrepreneurs using a semi-structured interview approach. The assessment tool is meant for entrepreneurs in the Netherlands in the high-tech industry to pre-screen or evaluate them whether equity crowdfunding can be considered as an alternative funding during their seed-stage financing. This assessment tool can present a fast insight to show start-ups how to raise money successfully on an equity crowdfunding campaign. Hence, it helps entrepreneurs make efficient decisions whether equity crowdfunding can be considered as a source of financing. The assessment tool can also pinpoint their weaknesses if they are going to participate in an equity crowdfunding campaign. By raising the awareness of equity crowdfunding among entrepreneurs, it is possible to provide them with one more option (equity crowdfunding) in their seed-stage fundraising strategy.

The information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and platforms can be mitigated by collecting recommendations to platforms. There are two sources of recommendations. One is from entrepreneurs’ point of view by semi-structured interviews. The other one is from second hand information collected to learn from the market leader the UK.

Equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK have evolved with new operations compared to the Netherlands. One is lead investor system whereby the lead investor serves as an experienced investor who can conduct due diligence on behalf of rest of investors from the crowd, but also lead investor attracts followers to invest because of his/her reputation in the field. Under this system, the success rate of campaigns goes up to more than 72%, while platforms without lead investor mechanism is about 55%. Another trend is unified nominee structure, which is the “funds” function by Seedrs. So investors can invest to equity crowdfunding campaigns, convertible loans, or funds. In the earlier two options, investors invest under their own identity to projects, which means entrepreneurs can have hundreds of small investors that they have to manage updates with. However, in the “funds” option, investors put money into a pool under the name of Seedrs. And Seedrs invest to different projects to leverage the risks for investors, acting as a portfolio manager in traditional banking. Also, entrepreneurs do not have to worry about managing hundreds of investors. All investment is under the unified nominee structure, which is under Seedrs name. This structure provides both sides convenience. This innovative trend is definitely worth borrowing by Netherlands platforms. Also, there is a difference of operations on due diligence between the UK platforms and the Netherlands platforms. The Netherlands platform Symbid perform due diligence after the campaign target is reached and before passing to the entrepreneur. While the UK platforms perform due diligence before listing a campaign online. This measurement results a rejection rate of 72% of projects. However, investors can expect better quality projects to invest. As a result, platforms act with more reputation would attract more investors.

To summarise recommendations from entrepreneurs to platforms, they think if the speed of fundraising were faster than formal investors (VC and angels), it would be more appealing to entrepreneurs. So the platform can be attract more entrepreneurs by shortening the fundraising cycle of equity crowdfunding. Also, if the platform can enable functions of “network and knowledge” to be provided by the crowd, it would attract more entrepreneurs, because all interviewees in the research think it is very important. “Network and knowledge” are the most repeated key words when entrepreneurs answering the interview questions regarding their concerns in choosing equity crowdfunding. Not surprisingly, the most attractive part of traditional investors (VC and angels) is the value-added services. They can provide their network to boost the development of start-ups. They can also provide their knowledge or expertise in technical, managerial or strategic levels to help start-ups to expand as fast as possible. If those benefits entrepreneurs can acquire from the crowds on equity crowdfunding campaign, there will be more entrepreneurs to choose equity crowdfunding. One of the reasons why the equity crowdfunding in the UK market is much more developed than the one in the Netherlands market is that the equity crowdfunding platforms have been backed by venture capital or lead investors (angels). The collaboration between equity crowdfunding platforms and venture capital in the UK is the goal for the Netherlands to achieve. However, in the UK, there is more institutional investment money in looking for investment opportunities than the Netherlands. It might be a challenge for Netherlands equity crowdfunding platforms to seek collaboration with venture capitals, but there are advantages from government subsidies that are possible to collaborate with.

The hybrid financial instrument between equity crowdfunding and other sources is possible. Two possible applications are like this. 1) If the entrepreneur has reached the target of equity crowdfunding campaign, the government subsidy would be provided on top of the money raised on equity crowdfunding. So it doubled the investment originally it would acquire only from the crowd. 2) If the entrepreneur has reached the goal of equity crowdfunding, a bank loan under government incentives would be provided on top of this equity crowdfunding funding. In other words, entrepreneurs can exchange less equity for the same amount of money. However, on equity crowdfunding platforms, the innovative projects are limited. Future study can explore the feasibility of this suggestion. In the UK, the collaboration between VC and equity crowdfunding already exists. Venture capital start investing in start-ups via equity crowdfunding platforms. This has proved to be feasible in the UK. It can be possible in the Netherlands in the future as well, since from the regulation part, equity crowdfunding in the UK and in the Netherlands are similar.

With more actors (venture capital, angel investors, government subsidies) involved on equity crowdfunding platforms, not only the crowds, there would be a bigger cash pool to invest in campaigns. In return, it can attract more entrepreneurs to participate in equity crowdfunding platforms.
By reducing information asymmetry between the entrepreneurs and the platforms and the entrepreneurs and the investors, it would be possible to mitigate “lemon market” effect by Akerlof (1970) and lead to a more prosperous equity crowdfunding industry in the Netherlands.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, Equity-based crowdfunding, start-ups, seed-stage financing, entrepreneurial financing, lemon market theory, information asymmetry, information cascade, herding, crowd wisdom, signalling, success factors.

Traditionally, research in supply management has focused on the linear relationship between buyer and supplier (e.g. Chan & Chan, 2004; Hokey, 1994; Rezaei & Ortt, 2012; Sheth & Sharma, 1997) and on the technical issues faced in Supply Chain Management (SCM) (Fisher, 1997). However, as (Kim et al., 2011) and (Bellamy & Basole, 2013) recognized, both perspectives fail to capture the complex and dynamic nature of supply networks. Therefore, it provides managers tools that are based on nonrealistic assumptions. Despite the attention given in the literature to the activity to optimize the supply base the acknowledgement of its strategic importance in the supply management practices, frameworks for carrying out the process to optimize the supply base are rare (Talluri & Narasimhan, 2005). Moreover, the existing frameworks fail to illustrate the complex and dynamic nature of the Supply Networks that encloses the process of supply base optimization (e.g Kraljic, 1983; Luo, Wu, Rosenberg, & Barnes, 2009; Ogden & Carter, 2008; Sarkar & Mohapatra, 2006). Therefore, the academia has not provided managers a representative mental model of the complexities implicated in the process to optimize the supply base nor how to manage them. For this reason, this thesis attempts to fill this gap by exploring what the system level perspective offers to the literature in the field of supply base optimization. In order to fill this gap, three case studies were conducted with three initiatives to optimize the supply base in Royal Philips. This thesis proposes a theoretical framework to visualize and evaluate the landscape of the supply base optimization. This framework characterizes three different networks involved in the optimization of the supply base and proposed to evaluate the landscape based the three fundamental themes: Network structure, dynamics and strategy. The outcome of the research is the creation of propositions to clarify the process that a firm undergoes when optimizing the supply base. The first contribution of this research is to provide a new definition of supply base opti-mization from a network perspective. Based on the input from the experts and the analysis of documentation of the conventions, the definition of supply base optimization is as follows: “Supply base optimization is an ongoing process that aims to have the right number of suppliers with the right capabilities and right performance in order to meet current and future business needs” The second contribution of this thesis is a theoretical framework that serves one main purpose: To provide guidance to analyze the process to optimize the supply base from a network-level perspective, providing researchers a more realistic mental map of the supply network to analyze its processes. On the other hand, the analysis of the data collected in the firm, namely the interviews and the documentation of each convention, lead us to the third contribution of this research, which is the creation of a process to optimize the supply base. This process takes a network level perspective and acknowledges the interactions of the different actors at each network.

The European Commission introduced PSD2 with the purpose to promote innovation by increasing competition and participation of non-banks in the payments industry. Amongst others, PSD2 requires banks to allow a way for third-party providers to have direct access to a current account’s data if authorized by the customer. This forces banks to open up their databases which calls into life a particular stream of questions about how technologies should be designed in order to preserve privacy. Therefore this research was dedicated to designing a framework of general principles for the inclusion of privacy in innovation within the financial industry, in particular for the incumbent bank.

The Value Sensitive Design approach was utilized in order to provide this framework through a qualitative explorative case study. In the conceptualization stage of VSD, privacy was defined through a literature review. For the empirical investigation, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eleven experts from three of the four types of stakeholders. Values that were identified in literature were qualitatively validated by scoring their importance relative to each other. For the technical investigation, the most important values were translated into design requirements by utilizing the value hierarchy method. The application of VSD to innovation in finance is the theoretical contribution of this research.

Privacy was conceptualized as complex and interrelated with other values. Values related to privacy in the case of PSD2 were also identified in several literature streams. Through a qualitative validation, the final set of values to be reflected by technology designed after PSD2 was determined which shows that privacy is the value of greatest importance to be included in financial innovation. Also, based on the insights experts brought forward during the interviews, five ethical challenges that come with the implementation of PSD2 were identified. The applicability of the value hierarchy method was demonstrated by translating the value privacy into six design requirements. These six design requirements addressed the end-user’s ability to make an informed decision for consent, ex-ante privacy assessment through standardized licensing procedures and a shared license database, the possibility for end-users to manage information disclosed through APIs and the limitation of information referring to transaction’s counterpart that did not consent.