Using Communities of Practice for Entrepreneurial Learning

Start-ups engage in entrepreneurial learning throughout their existence. Although the process is highly complex and difficult, they benefit from support offered by incubator. Elements of incubator support are able to create a positive environment with certain requirements that contribute to interorganisational learning and acquisition of...

Business development in the Dutch residential solar panel market

• An extensive literature review provided this research with useful theories; a framework to assess business models (Osterwalder,2005) and a systematic process to analyze the sector and the business environment. • The electricity production sector is in transition; this comes with opportunities for new entrants into the market. The business...

Managing project complexity: A study into adapting early project phases to improve project performance in large engineering projects

Engineering projects become increasingly more complex and project complexity is assumed to be one of the causes for projects being delivered late and over budget. However, what this project complexity actually comprised of was unclear. To improve the overall project performance, this study focuses on identifying the potential causes of...

Crowdfinancing, bridging the valley of death?: An explorative research on designing the proposition of a crowdfinancing platform considering the preferences of entrepreneurs

Crowdfunding is an emerging financial instrument, which can roughly be described as a phenomenon where a large number of financial contributions are made to support specific initiatives or enterprises in an online environment. The form can be a donation, prefinancing a product or service or in return of a financial reward. The latter form is...

Marketing Strategies in High-Tech Start-Ups

High tech start-ups have a high degree of risk associated to them because they are linked to high technology and unknown markets. They lack the marketing experience and their focus may lie on developing a better technology and product. Books have been written about marketing in high-tech companies, but there are no books that specifically target...

Contextual Innovation Management: Effects of Project Characteristics and Leadership Styles on Front End Decision Making

Despite the extensive body of knowledge that exists on innovation management and project management, the number of failed projects is still disappointingly high. This is especially true in projects that involve break-through innovations. Recent literature suggests that the application of a contextual approach rather than a universal approach...

Information Technology and Firm Performance: The Role of Innovation

There is an essential quest in the literature to open up the “black box” of Information Technology (IT) by identifying and explaining how and why IT creates value for the firm. The present dissertation is an attempt to clarify the role of innovation in the process of value creation from IT investments. It belongs to the mainstream of “IT...

How to predict the development of breakthrough technologies with the help of electronic databases?

Breakthrough technologies can be defined by ‘new-to-the-world’ or ‘radical (improved)’ technologies which have the capacity to change the behaviour of end-users. The journey these technologies practise towards the mainstream market can be regarded as a dynamic process with lots of uncertainties. Companies investing in the development of these...

The use of causal and effectual logic in Enviu

Where causation is a set of behavioural principles aimed at controlling the agents future through prediction, effectuation focuses on achieving control without relying on predictions. This research explores how an organization can use a mix of causal and effectual principles, and what the drivers of such behaviour are. In doing this, a basis is...

Relevance of Vendor's Business Case with it Project Success

The field of Project management has evolved considerably over the last decade. With globalization and the ever increasing complexity of IT projects, project management has become ever more critical for IT consultancy firms and software service/product suppliers. Based on a survey conducted by Sogeti, only 30% of the IT projects undertaken by...

Innovation Challenge at Philips Healthcare: “What are the Critical Success Factors at the Front end Innovation process?”

This report presents an exploratory study which investigates the critical success factors for the front end innovation process. An innovation challenge being experienced by Philips Healthcare is tackled by looking closer into the front end process of the company. Based on a literature review and a comprehensive case study; the theoretical and...