The study seeks to develop a better understanding of the unique drivers and barriers encountered by Dutch Deep-Tech Startups (DTS) in the Sustainable Energy (SE) sector during their pre-founding to founding stages. The aim is to identify effective strategies employed by entrepreneurs to navigate these challenges and to leverage the drivers. Despite their potential to address major societal challenges, these startups often face high failure rates due to inherent complexities and dependence on heavy R&D. To gain a better understanding of the drivers, barriers, and strategies, the study utilizes literature review and semi-structured interviews. Key findings highlight supportive academic culture, regulatory environment (RE), business networks, entrepreneurial factors, and personal motivations as drivers, while identifying barriers such as academic-commercial divergence, regulatory complexity, investor discrepancies, entrepreneurial factors, market research (MR) challenges and personal barriers. Strategies for success include forming cross-disciplinary teams, leveraging academic resources, strategic funding opportunities, adapting to market needs, and maintaining resilience and motivation. A conceptual framework is proposed to guide future entrepreneurs.
The study aims to benefit future DTS entrepreneurs, by offering practical strategies and insights for overcoming barriers and leveraging drivers. Besides DTS entrepreneurs, the study also provides valuable insights for universities and policymakers. The research offers policymakers insights on optimizing the regulatory environment to better support DTS. It suggests the need for streamlined regulations and targeted funding initiatives. For universities, the findings highlight the importance of embracing an entrepreneurial culture and providing support systems for DTS, including access to specialized resources and mentorship programs. Overall, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the factors that influence the success and failure of DTS, offering practical recommendations for enhancing their viability and impact.

The ability of data analytics (DA) to improve strategic decision-making (SDM) by analyzing large volumes of data has been well documented in larger enterprises. In Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the importance of DA is increasingly acknowledged. However, most of the SME-specific research has focused on DA use in non-strategic contexts. This research focuses on the current usage and adoption of DA in the SDM of SMEs.

The primary objective of this research is to understand how decision-makers in SMEs use DA in SDM, and to identify the perceived barriers and opportunities for its usage. This study addresses the main research question: "How do decision-makers in Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises utilize data analytics in strategic decision-making, and what are the perceived opportunities and barriers associated with its application?" By addressing this question, this study contributes to the existing literature by providing an understanding of the current state of DA usage in SMEs and identifying SDM-SME-specific barriers and opportunities.

This research is of qualitative nature, conducted with data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 13 decision-makers from various SMEs. Through thematic analysis of the interviews in the context of the existing literature, the research concluded on the usage of DA in five cases within the SDM of SMEs:

SMEs use DA to support decisions regarding market positioning, by analyzing market trends and competitors. SDMs regarding market responsiveness are also supported by DA, by supporting SDM by conducting procurement and sales analysis and resource planning. Furthermore, DA supports SDMs regarding customer relations, value proposition improvements and the improvement of their organization. Some early adopter SMEs use predictive and prescriptive techniques in their SDMs. The usage of more sophisticated predictive and prescriptive techniques in SDM is not widespread yet under SMEs.

Despite these usages within the SDM of SMEs, several barriers were observed to hinder the implementation of DA in SDM. Technical barriers to adoption are lacking analysis quality and missing data. The costs and insufficient benefits of DA in SDM are both technological and organizational barriers. The organizational barriers further include the sentiment of the decision-maker, the knowledge in the SME, the SME size, internal resistance, and having no time or set priority for DA.

The research also highlights several opportunities for SMEs to further implement DA in their SDM. These opportunities include possible collaborations among SMEs or governmental institutions, and the cost of DA going down with technological advancements.

Given the potential benefits, it is recommended for decision-makers in SME to explore partnerships with other businesses or public institutions. This could initiate shared resources, reduced costs, and enhanced DA capabilities. Collaborative efforts can facilitate access to higher-quality data and advanced analytics tools that might be otherwise inaccessible.

Furthermore, as technological advancements make DA tools more affordable, SMEs should prioritize investments in scalable solutions that align with their growth objectives. A phased approach, starting with basic analytics and gradually integrating more advanced techniques, can help manage costs while building internal expertise.

To overcome organizational barriers, SMEs should invest in training and development to build internal DA expertise. Upskilling existing employees and hiring DA professionals can bridge knowledge gaps and foster a data-driven culture.

It is recommended that the SMEs try to utilize these opportunities. Considering the added value of DA to SDM, it is also recommended for governing bodies to investigate the possibilities for supporting the further adoption of DA in the SDM of SMEs.

This thesis examines the interactions within standard-setting consortia within the Audio/
Video/Multimedia sector, focusing on large company dominance, geographical proximity,
and technological proximity. It aims to uncover how these factors individually
and collectively influence the success of these consortia. The guiding research question is:
“What combinations of large company dominance, geographic proximity, and technological
proximity lead to successful outcomes in standard-setting consortia?”
Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), the study reveals that successful consortia
strike a balance in large company influence, maintain significant geographical proximity,
and ensure proper technological alignment. While large company dominance significantly
impacts consortium success, an optimal balance is essential to avoid power struggles and
foster effective collaboration. Geographical proximity, especially at the UN subregion level,
consistently contributes to success by enhancing trust and communication. Technological
proximity within industry groups is beneficial but must be complemented by other factors
to significantly impact outcomes. It’s clear that the success of consortia is best understood
through specific configurations of these variables rather than any single factor alone.
To evaluate consortium success, the study employs a multifactor framework focusing on the
creation of standards, their adoption, and scholarly recognition. This framework combines
qualitative and quantitative measures, providing a comprehensive assessment of consortium
performance.
The research makes a valuable contribution to the field by offering empirical evidence on
the strategic influence of large companies within standard-setting consortia. It extends
the understanding of how large firms drive innovation while balancing the contributions
of smaller participants. The study also offers nuanced insights into the roles of geographical
and technological proximities, emphasizing their combined effects on consortium success.
These findings are useful for both theoretical knowledge and practical applications,
informing technology management practices and shaping policies that support effective
standard-setting efforts.
From a Management of Technology perspective, this thesis demonstrates how strategic engagement
in standard-setting consortia can enhance a firm’s technological capabilities and
market positioning. Technology managers can leverage these insights to navigate standardsetting
processes more effectively, ensuring that their firms benefit from collaboration while
maintaining an optimal balance of influence.
However, this study acknowledges certain practical limitations. The findings, while insightful
for the Audio/Video/Multimedia sector, may need adaptation when applied to other
industries with different dynamics. Additionally, the reliance on publicly available data
from consortium websites and LinkedIn profiles may lead to practical challenges, such as
gaps or inconsistencies in the data, affecting decision-making. The study’s cross-sectional
approach provides a snapshot of current conditions but does not capture consortium dynamics
over time. Practitioners should consider these factors when applying the insights
to other contexts, and future research should aim to include a wider range of industries
and explore these dynamics longitudinally to inform more adaptive strategies.

In 2006 already, Clive Humby said: “Data is the New Oil!” and like oil, data needs “infrastructure” to be gathered, analyzed and used. This infrastructure is called data governance and it is essential in today’s data-driven era to ensure availability, quality and security of an organization’s data. This is especially true for financial services firms, which deal with massive amounts of highly-sensitive personal data, such as names, dates of birth and bank details, and operate in a highly regulated environment. Therefore, it is essential that any new data governance policies, such as a transition to a cloud-based data governance policy, are implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible. Research thus far has primarily focused on the importance of data governance and developing data governance models. However, the implementation of data governance proves to be not without its barriers. Some research has been done into what barriers organizations encounter when attempting to implement new data governance policies, but strategies to deal with these barriers have not been found in existing literature. Therefore, this research seeks to answer the question:

“How do managers at financial services firms in the Netherlands deal with the barriers to successfully implement new data governance?”

This thesis used a literature study, twelve individual interviews with PwC employees who were heavily involved in data governance implementation processes at financial services firms in the Netherlands and a focus group interview with experts from PwC to determine what barriers financial services firms face when they are implementing new data governance, which strategies they use to deal with these barriers and what key factors influence the decision-making in this implementation process. These three elements were then used to find the answer to how managers at financial services firms in the Netherlands successfully implement new data governance.

The research attempts to close the gap in the literature surrounding the general strategies that are used to navigate the barriers that inhibit (new) data governance implementation. Furthermore, it can help further identify which barriers (financial services) firms face when attempting to implement new data governance and aid in the development of more effective data governance framework. Additionally, the improved understanding of how financial services firms navigate the barriers that inhibit data governance implementation can help maintain trust in financial services firms and the financial system as a whole and it can aid in the development of more effective regulatory frameworks to increase how fast financial services firms are able to comply to them.

The barriers financial firms face to implementing data governance that were found in this thesis were sorted into four broad categories: “Organizational culture/structure”, ”Senior management priority”, ”IT performance” and ”Lack of information”. Examples of these barriers are: a “restrictive mindset”, “unfocused strategy”, “incompatible IT systems” or a “lack of information on technoliii
ogy”. The strategies the firms used to deal with these barriers were also sorted into four different categories: “Senior management vision/championing”, “Technological tools/skills”, “Stakeholder involvement/consensus” and the “Business case” strategy. Examples of these strategies are: “developing a global vision”, “standardization of technology”, “stakeholder involvement” and “building a broad business case”. A complete overview of the barriers and their corresponding strategies that were found in this thesis can be found in figure 4.1...

Global warming is one of the biggest societal problems in 2023. The share of IT usage within this problem has been growing rapidly in the last decades, and this is likely to continue. To stop the increasing footprint of IT (usage) a significant change is required. However, due to the pervasive nature of IT integration in our daily lives, this is a very complex undertaking. Greening the IT sector would require multidimensional changes in technologies, behaviors, regulations and so on. Apart from the need of IT in society, most people within society are not aware of the consequences of IT usage...

Standardisation plays a crucial role in driving long-term productivity, competitive growth, and innovation in various industries. Its primary objective is to streamline processes by establishing consensus among different stakeholders, such as firms, users, academia and governments. Standards provide classifications such as quality, compatibility, safety, or measurements to ensure that products and procedures meet specific requirements and can be reliably used across different domains. In spite of the importance of standardisation, there is a lot to learn about the factors that influence standard success. As of now, literature in this field is mostly exploratory in nature. This study investigates the factors influencing the success of standardisation efforts, in particular, it examines the impact of technological diversity and geographical diversity within standard setting organisations (SSOs) or standards consortia on achieving standard success. Additionally, the study explores the role of the size of these SSOs or standards consortia in influencing the likelihood of standard success. Next to that, the influence of the definition of standard success is also examined, by providing three different theoretical definitions for standard success. This study adds on to the literature by providing larger scale qualitative research in an attempt to better understand the dynamics of standard success. In this study an original dataset was created of standards consortia in the context of Renewable Energy (RE) and Sustainability, Efficiency, and Green Initiatives (SEG). The chosen context is significant for addressing the global climate problem, a complex and multifaceted wicked problem that requires collaborative efforts. Therefore, the understanding of which factors influence the success of standards is essential to tackle climate change's adverse impacts. Standards are important in providing universal guidelines, products and protocols that are needed to combat climate change. The results indicate the presence of a U-shaped relationship between technological diversity and standards success, this result has not yet been found earlier and implies that instead of an optimum range of diversity, managers should to be at either extreme end of the technological diversity spectrum. Moreover, we observe a positive relationship between consortium size and standard success, meaning that whenever possible, managers should aim to increase consortium size. This study provides a better understanding of how the characteristics of standards consortia influence standard success which can also aid managers in making well-educated choices when setting up standards consortia.

This thesis explores the dynamics of customer satisfaction and its relationship with product attributes while modeling the natural decay of delight associated with these attributes. The research analyzes online reviews of Philips Airfryers to provide valuable insights for businesses aiming to enhance customer satisfaction and remain competitive in a dynamic marketplace.

The study offers several insights into the concept of the natural decay of delight, which refers to the diminishing satisfaction experienced by customers over time. It reveals that the availability of alternative products influences this decay, indicating that as more alternatives become available, the initial delight associated with a product tends to diminish. This understanding underscores the importance of managing customer satisfaction throughout the product life cycle.

The thesis delves into the impact of product attributes like capacity, repurchase intention, and value for money on customer satisfaction \footnote{Keywords: Capacity, Value for Money, Repurchase Intention, Total Alternatives, Airfryer, Customer Satisfaction, and Natural Decay of Delight.}. It identifies these attributes as significant factors affecting customer satisfaction levels. Capacity, when aligned with customer expectations, enhances satisfaction. A positive repurchase intention fosters greater satisfaction and brand loyalty. Moreover, customers perceiving good value for money report higher satisfaction. The study also explores the moderating role of external variables, such as the number of alternatives, in shaping these relationships, providing valuable insights into customer preferences and behavior.

Moreover, the research incorporates external factors, including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, sales channels, and regional variations. These external influences are crucial in shaping customer satisfaction and require consideration in product management and marketing strategies.

The practical implications of the findings are significant for businesses. They emphasize the importance of understanding the natural decay of delight and managing product attributes to optimize customer satisfaction. By strategically considering moderating variables, companies can enhance their investments and overall customer satisfaction. Additionally, the study highlights the significance of adapting to changing market dynamics by incorporating external factors in product strategies.

In conclusion, this thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of customer satisfaction dynamics, product attributes, and external influences. The insights gained can guide businesses in developing effective strategies to manage customer satisfaction, adapt to market changes, and maintain a competitive edge. By understanding and addressing customer preferences and factors influencing satisfaction, businesses can optimize their efforts and drive success in today's fiercely competitive marketplace. Businesses should prioritize actively managing product attributes, continuously seeking customer feedback, and proactively adapting to evolving customer demands with the support of their data analytics teams. These actions aim to enhance overall customer satisfaction and foster loyalty.

Organizations that do not embrace digital transformation may find themselves falling behind on competitors and losing out on potential innovation and growth opportunities. As the business environment is changing at an unprecedented pace, it is becoming increasingly important to balance continuity and change to achieve long-term success. By employing a qualitative case study design including semi-structured interviews with twelve employees across different hierarchical levels and business units, this thesis aims to serve a threefold objective. Firstly, it aims to determine the main barriers to digital transformation for traditional organizations. Secondly, it will elaborate on how ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities can be applied in the context of digital transformation. Lastly, the research integrates both perspectives and derives success factors that can guide traditional organizations towards successful digital transformation. The following main research questions has been formulated to guide the research:
What are the barriers to digital transformation in traditional organizations such as COMPANY and how can ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities be applied to overcome these barriers and thus pave the way for successful digital transformation?
The barriers to digital transformation are categorized based on their level of origin and their barrier category. Levels of origin include intra-level, inter-level, and meta-level. The intra-level refers to interactions that occur inside an organization, inter-level interactions refer to interactions between an organization and external actors, and meta-level interactions are high level and involve policy-makers and governments. Findings show that the most prominent barriers for COMPANY are knowledge and skills, organizational, and cultural barriers on the intra-level and technological and environmental barriers on the inter-level. 
Ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities provide two powerful lenses to approach the challenge of digital transformation for traditional companies. Ambidexterity refers to "an organization's ability to be aligned and efficient in its management of today's business demands (exploitation) while simultaneously being adaptive to changes in the environment (exploration)" \parencite{raisch2008organizational}. Although there are multiple ways to balance exploration and exploitation activities, it is argued that structural separation of exploring and exploiting activities is the best form of ambidexterity for an organization seeking to engage in digital transformation. According to \textcite{eisenhardt2000dynamic}, companies must develop sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities to take full advantage of digital transformation. For the sensing capability, it is important to involve people that are the closest to the market. The sensing capability should not be limited to one market, because there might also be interesting developments in adjacent markets. The reconfiguring capability can be considered a higher-order capability. As reconfiguring includes "consistently implementing renewal activities by assigning responsibilities, allocating resources, and ensuring that the workforce possesses the newly required knowledge" \parencite{kump2019toward}, the management team should play a prominent role in the reconfiguring capability.
While these approaches on their own provide valuable insights, integrating both approaches point to three success factors that should take center stage in digital transformation. To deal with environmental barriers, organizations should take customers by the hand in the process of change. During the sensing process, customer can be a useful source of information, whereas in the seizing process, it is really important to acquire feedback from customers. The second identified success factor is an innovation funnel that is a tool to guide the innovation process to overcome organizational, environmental, and technological barriers. The last success factor is a steering group that oversees the whole process, including exploration and exploitation. This is also a way to involve internal stakeholders and thereby resolving cultural barriers. 

Public projects play a crucial role in societal development yet managing them effectively requires a nuanced understanding of the expectations and concerns of different stakeholders. This paper explores the complex landscape of public projects, with a particular focus on understanding the diverse perspectives of various stakeholder groups and their perceptions of the tangible and intangible impacts of these initiatives. The existing literature has provided valuable insights into specific stakeholder perspectives and regional nuances, but it remains fragmented, leading to a piecemeal understanding of the broader landscape. Addressing this gap, the research introduces a structured model that combines the RACI model for stakeholder identification and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach for categorizing impact factors. This model aims to bring clarity and consistency to the assessment of stakeholder priorities in public projects. The research question guiding this study is: How do distinct stakeholder groups perceive the intangible and tangible impacts of public projects? To assess the validity of the proposed model, we explored the practical application within the context of smart street lighting projects. utilizing semi-structured interviews with 16 stakeholders across the four RACI categories. The findings reveal shared concerns across stakeholder groups, particularly regarding privacy and security issues associated with smart lighting. However, notable differences also emerged, such as manufacturers’ willingness to compromise social responsibility for economic gains and citizens’ feelings of exclusion from decision-making processes. Based on these findings, several suggestions were made: 1) Establish a regular dialogue mechanism with stakeholders, ensuring that each group, especially citizens, is included in the decision-making process; 2) Address privacy and security concerns by incorporating robust data protection and cybersecurity measures into the smart street lighting systems; 3) Encourage manufacturers and other profit-driven stakeholders to align more closely with social and environmental responsibilities; 4) Use the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach to regularly measure and (publicly) report the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the smart street lighting project to maintain transparency. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing a nuanced understanding of stakeholder perspectives in public projects, offering a structured model for future studies, and paving the way for more informed and inclusive decision-making processes. The limitations of the study, primarily related to its regional focus and potential biases in participant selection, are acknowledged, underscoring the need for further research to validate and refine the proposed model.

Public-private partnerships (PPP) that focus on innovation are excellent methods to improve the innovative capabilities of both partners, however, within the complex dynamics of this cooperation, literature and management would benefit from an analysis of barriers, success factors, and strategies employed within the PPP. This research can be used as a springboard for further research by analyzing a novel research setting: Defense Ministries and Defense Industries. This novelty was compounded by taking a qualitative, explorative approach. A focus on experimental development was taken to limit the large amount of innovative activity present in the sector. Focus was kept on the effects on individual projects, as opposed to innovation systems or networks. This leads to the following research question:

What are the barriers and success factors in public-private partnerships that focus on experimental development, and how do the participants cope with the barriers, and utilize the success factors?

From the literature a theoretical framework was set up based on four categories of factors influencing the innovation process. The categories are organizational, contextual, interaction-specific, and innovation-characteristic. Literature suggested that interaction-specific barriers were the main source of barriers. The main strategies in literature revolve around interaction-specific solutions to these interaction-specific barriers. A contextual model was set up.

Dutch Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Dutch Defense industry provided a novel research setting with hard-to-define innovation goals. Individuals from both sides of the PPP with practical experience in PPPs that focus on experimental development were interviewed. Within the Dutch MoD these were innovation coordinators within sub-organizations and within the Defense Industry these were leaders of small to medium-sized companies. The data was gathered through 13 interviews, of which 11 were used as sources of data. The data was first deductively coded through the four categories and then inductively coded based using the terminology of the interviewees.

This coding strategy led to three organizational factors: ‘process rules’, ‘culture, vision & implementation’ and ‘scale-up’, five contextual factors: ‘procurement: general’ ‘procurement: prior knowledge’, ‘procurement: perception’, ‘privacy’ and ‘technology-related’, one innovation-characteristic factor: ‘uncertainty’ and three interaction-specific factors: ‘contact with end-user’, ‘shared understanding’ and ‘expectation management’. The factors were described as ‘barrier’, ‘success factor’, ‘strategy’, and ‘not a barrier’. Organizational and contextual factors were the main factors influencing the success of the innovation process. ‘Process rules’ was named the most influencing factor for the innovation process. ‘Procurement law’ was the most prominent contextual factor. Innovation-characteristic factors were often considered to not be relevant to the cooperative innovation process. Lastly, the interaction-specific factors were occasionally cited as a barrier and often named as a success factor, specifically ‘contact with end-user’. Interaction was key to most strategies employed to overcome barriers.

In conclusion, this study has provided a unique insight into a collaborative phenomenon in a scarcely researched setting. The findings can be used in comparison with other research on PPPs with innovative goals, especially those that have taken place in the Netherlands. Compared to literature, the appearance of interaction-specific strategies is not unique, but in their broad application to overcome a plethora of barriers is. Further research focusing on communication dynamics within PPPs is recommended to enhance collaborative efforts and drive impactful innovations in the Defense sector. In a practical sense, reviewing process and contextual rules and reviewing the accessibility of the PPP to newcomers in the sector would enhance innovation programs, fostering effective collaboration between public and private entities.

(Innovation) portfolio management literature is extensive but barely touched upon in the public context. Portfolio management is instrumental in resource allocation and strategic decision-making, directing investments toward strategic priorities. This thesis explores how innovation portfolio management (IPM) is performed at the Dutch Ministry of Defense, and a comparison is made with private and public sector literature available.
Key findings illuminate pronounced disparities between the MoD’s IPM methodologies and those established in the private sector. Notably, the MoD’s IPM framework places subjective risk-reward metrics at the forefront of decision-making, diverging from conventional private sector emphasis on monetary considerations. Furthermore, the MoD’s IPM approach primarily revolves around project-level evaluations, constraining portfolio-level prioritization decision-making. The conspicuous absence of a articulated innovation strategy and the decentralized nature of portfolio oversight serve as additional distinguishing features of the MoD’s IPM practices. Moreover, the MoD’s unique procurement model, which relies extensively on external development, and its innovation strategy, predominantly shaped by market dynamics, set it apart from IPM practices commonly observed in the private sector. Existing public sector literature has provided valuation methodologies across diverse sectors;
however, these contributions have often neglected to provide a comprehensive under standing of how IPM is executed and have been relatively under-referenced. Within the MoD, this thesis reveals that the valuation of IPM, while exhibiting variations among different departments, predominantly relies on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) with a retrospective focus. Notably, subjective measures such as relevance and urgency are employed as yardsticks for assessing project value. This research enhances our understanding of IPM in the public sector and underscores the need to further explore and refine IPM methodologies within public organizations. It highlights the distinctive characteristics of IPM within the MoD and emphasizes the importance of aligning IPM practices with organizational objectives and strategies to optimize resource allocation and decision-making. With the results of this thesis, public entities have guidance on how to organize portfolio management and how prioritization
can be performed.