"uuid","repository link","title","author","contributor","publication year","abstract","subject topic","language","publication type","publisher","isbn","issn","patent","patent status","bibliographic note","access restriction","embargo date","faculty","department","research group","programme","project","coordinates"
"uuid:ecdc5f33-60c3-40ca-a08b-b02c6a7d085e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ecdc5f33-60c3-40ca-a08b-b02c6a7d085e","Unlocking Cluster Investment Attractiveness: A Multi-Case Study Analysis of Patenting, Publishing, and University Proximity","Venturi, Laura (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Scholten, V.E. (mentor); Ralcheva, Aleksandrina (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","In a world marked by rapid technological advancements and environmental concerns, clean technology clusters have become hubs of innovation. Attracting investment in these clusters has gained significant attention from scholars and industry professionals, which aim at understanding which activities companies can undertake in order to increase the attractiveness of the cluster and region.
This study explores the factors influencing investment attractiveness in clean technology clusters, focusing on company-level variables like patenting activity, publishing activity, and proximity to universities.
Using a case study approach, the research analyzes four Western European clean technology clusters, aiming to uncover insights and differences in investment attractiveness. The four clusters are Aclima (Basque Country, Spain), CLEAN (Central Region, Denmark), Greenreality (South Karelia, Denmark) and Water Alliance (The Netherlands). The analysis is divided into the single case reports for each cluster, exploring the variables at the company level, and into the cross-case analysis, bring the previous observations together at the cluster level.
The findings highlight the positive impact of patenting activity on cluster attractiveness for the clusters under study. While no distinct relationships were found for publishing activity and university proximity, the cluster-level additional factors in consideration provided useful identifying some potentially meaningful differences between the clusters, such as the approach and recognition of their regions and countries toward sustainability.
However, the study also acknowledges its limitations, mainly stated as the availability and quality of data, as well as some methodological decisions on the assessment of investment attractiveness, suggesting future research opportunities in this dynamic field. From elaborating a more refined iteration of this study to approaching new topics, the findings and limitations of this research invite future researchers to enrich the body of knowledge associated with clean technology clusters, and in particular with their funding dynamics.
The implications of this study mainly concern the positive influence of patenting on the attractiveness of companies and clusters. Pursuing and supporting this kind of intellectual protection activity could prove to be a powerful tool for firms and cluster managers.","investment attractiveness; clean technology clusters; clusters; innovation capabilities; access to knowledge","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:7b15ab3c-4819-4daa-ba31-9adc00a1df58","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7b15ab3c-4819-4daa-ba31-9adc00a1df58","A Methodology for Improving gXR5 Speed and Accuracy","Pathak, Karan (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Hamdioui, S. (mentor); Gaydadjiev, G. (mentor); Langendoen, K.G. (graduation committee); Atienza Alonso, David (graduation committee); Zapater Sancho, Marina (graduation committee); Ansaloni, Giovanni (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Computer Architects often walk the tightrope between performance, power and area while designing modern day processors. This daunting task is made even more challenging by short Time-to-Market requirements set by the clients. In light of these challenges, architectural simulators provide a much needed tool for the architects to gauge the impact of their innovations rather quickly. Arguably, use of such simulators is essential in avoiding a product recall due to the processor failing to deliver on performance/power requirements for the intended application. The thesis is in-line with the objective of identifying and addressing the bottlenecks in the RISC-V simulation ecosystem and contribute in the development of RISC-V infrastructure.
The intended objective of an architectural simulator is to capture the trend of the real hardware (i.e., performance improvement due to micro-architectural changes in real hardware should be eloquently captured by the simulator). A good simulator shall have high throughput (less simulation time) and should be easily re-configurable. The re-configurability of the simulator can be as fine as micro-architectural changes or as large as a new ISA being simulated. These attributes of speed and re-configurability come at the cost of accuracy. A high error in performance statistics of the simulator fails to engender confidence among the prospective users. Hence, validating performance of simulators against hardware is essential.
The thesis introduces the need for a full system architectural simulator for RISC-V processors followed by a brief, yet crisp review of the past attempts at making such simulators. The review is from the perspective of existing methodologies for performance validation of the simulators. The work also proposes a new methodology for validating system simulators. Although, the proposed methodology is generic and can be extended to other ISAs (such as ARM, x86, etc.), the target hardware chosen are RISC-V ISA based systems that span both commercially, IP protected processor as well as open-source processors widely adopted by the RISC-V community.
The error in validated simulator is reduced to 22.9% and 18.9% for selected SPEC2017 benchmarks applications, by calibrating the CPU model. The methodology also streamlines CPU performance validation of the simulators.","Architectural Simulators; Full-system; gem5; Hardware Performance Counters; RISC-V; Linux capable","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-08-28","","","","Electrical Engineering | Embedded Systems","",""
"uuid:928f9315-d63f-49c5-8ce9-21804fbc17c8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:928f9315-d63f-49c5-8ce9-21804fbc17c8","Digital transformation in traditional companies: Combining ambidexterity and dynamic capability perspectives","Versteeg, Max (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Scholten, V.E. (mentor); Smit, A.C. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","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.
This project seeks to explore the relationships between the urban system, inequality and life fulfilment by analyzing the spatial and societal systems active both in the present day and in the traditional/pre-colonial era. An anthropological and philosophical lens is used throughout the analysis in order to distill the value systems that have underpinned life in these different historical eras. These value systems, in turn, reveal the perspective through which people have been experiencing their environments, which helps to explain why this concept of life fulfilment inequality is present here. There is a clear disconnect between the cultural and historical makeup of society in Botswana and the modern systems, spaces and institutions which govern everyday life.
Thirteen principles for a new urban system are then proposed, which when taken together, attempt to define a system which prioritizes economic/socio-spatial equity and the maximization of life fulfilment. Design demonstrations are created to imagine how these principles could be translated into space.","Life Fulfilment; Spatial Inequality; Economic Inequality; Capabilities Approach; Cultural Philosophy","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Complex Cities","Planning Complex Cities","-24.651668926613016, 25.91825987379785"
"uuid:d3a49597-361c-4d1b-8841-e0c5395058b7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d3a49597-361c-4d1b-8841-e0c5395058b7","Formalisation, then what?: Exploring the impacts of the process on recipient households in Albania","Dervishaj, Rea (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Geurts, E.H.M. (mentor); Czischke, D.K. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","This thesis examines the impact of the formalisation process on recipient households in peri-urban areas of Albania, by employing a multi-dimensional framework, adapted from Frediani and Hansen (2015), which uses aspects of both the Capability Space and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. The main research question explores the impact of formalization on recipient households, while sub-questions delve into aspects such as tenure security, socio-economic characteristics, asset accumulation, and the influence of external factors on the benefits of formalization. It adopts a case-study approach, where different qualitative methods are used to study two cases in different cities in Albania, Kamëz and Durrës. A total of 36 recipient households were selected as participants, taking part in a qualitative door-to-door survey, where subsequently, five of which were part of semi-structured interviews. Alongside this, several experts and government officials were interviewed as well, to gain a better understanding of the issues and to assure the triangulation of the data.
The data analysis utilized Excel for the survey data and ATLAS.ti for interview transcripts, employing both deductive and inductive coding techniques. The findings reveal that the obtaining of ownership certificates had limited overall impact on the access to livelihood assets amongst recipient households. While there were some enhancements in financial capital for a few participants, the changes were not present in the rest of the sample population. Moreover, for those few participants that observed any changes following formalisation, the possession of other assets and skills prior to the process, played a significant role in their ability to capitalise on the legal status of their properties. This thesis highlights the importance of considering multiple dimensions of well-being, and accounting for the local socio-economic contexts, to fully understand the impact of formalisation on recipient households. It emphasizes the need for further research into gentrification and formalisation, the need for longitudinal and comparative studies, as well as further academic research into policy measures that can address the broader socio-economic challenges concerning formalisation. Lastly, the findings can inform future initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable development and inclusive urbanisation in Albania and similar contexts.","formalisation; Albania; peri-urban areas; recipient households; sustainable livelihoods framework; capability approach","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Management in the Built Environment","","41.1533, 20.1683"
"uuid:bb9c94e2-cc5b-4956-8605-95f558b63b8f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bb9c94e2-cc5b-4956-8605-95f558b63b8f","A warm welcome or a poor pick? Exploring energy poverty and inequality in the transition to a heat network in Delft","van Loo, Julian (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Mouter, N. (mentor); Ghorbani, A. (graduation committee); de Wildt, T.E. (graduation committee); Santoo, S. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Energy poverty is an increasingly important issue. While vulnerable households are especially at risk in the energy transition, energy poverty effects of the transition are unknown. In Delft, a district heating network based on geothermal energy is planned. The distributive justice aspects of heat networks in the heating transition remain largely unexplored. In this master's thesis, an agent-based model is developed to explore inequalities in energy poverty and access to energy that might arise from the switch to a heat network. The thesis aims to explore the scenarios in which these inequalities can occur and for what types of households, and to determine policy interventions that contribute to a just and inclusive heat network. The extent and distribution of energy poverty and heat network access was explored in multiple energy price contexts, in combination with the following interventions: lower energy tax for gas use below average use and high energy tax for gas use above average use; vouchers to cover upfront costs of heat network connection; renovation of dwellings with poor energetic quality; and awareness campaigns to reduce energy use. The results show that the current district heating pricing structure increases inequality. These costs should be shifted from the high fixed costs to the variable costs to reduce energy poverty in households with low energy consumption. In addition, it was found that building renovation could decrease inequality and energy poverty. Recommendations are made for policy, research and the development of new energy poverty indicators to reduce energy poverty and inequality in the energy transition.","Agent-based modelling; Capability approach; Energy Justice; Energy poverty; Heat networks; Energy transition","en","master thesis","","","","","","dataset: Agent-based model code and input data on 4TU.Research Repository","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:c2dd652a-13ec-418d-a25e-5a1d9478892f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c2dd652a-13ec-418d-a25e-5a1d9478892f","Exploring Intelligent Technology for Older People through Speculative Design","Huang, Yu (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Rozendaal, M.C. (mentor); Lupetti, M.L. (mentor); van Grunsven, J.B. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","This report first discusses the phenomenon of aging, how it is commonly understood, and the state-of-the-art of the technology for aging people (gerontechnology) (chapter 1). In the analysis, the author briefly describes the origin and development of the notion of aging through medical, social, and cultural lenses. How the negative narrative around aging has hamstrung the innovation for older people is presented by enumerating three types of design pitfalls identified in today’s mainstream gerontechnology. Drawing on a body of literature (e.g. the ‘successful aging model’ and the ‘personhood turn’ in the ‘care model’) and projects, the author shows new voices attempting to overturn this negative narrative. The Capability Approach (CA), especially Nussbaum’s capability theory which provides a concrete and substantive normative foundation for probing into older people’s lives is introduced (chapter 3 prologue). Interviews are conducted to obtain in-depth understanding of people's needs, wants, and challenges (chapter 3). Based on the literature research and empirical studies, a gap between the real needs and wants emerging in the aging process and what is provided by current mainstream gerontechnology is identified (tension 1) (chapter 4).
Informed by several inspiring design frameworks or theories (e.g. design for appropriation, end-user development, ambiguity in design, meta-design), the author proposed design for openness as a potential design strategy to address the first tension (chapter 5 prologue). What is so powerful about ‘openness’ in design is its potential to satiate various needs over time, in the meanwhile, promote autonomy in users. A theoretical model is theorized to provide firm design handles (chapter 5 prologue). Next, co-speculation sessions are conducted to gather situated knowledge and to experiment with the idea of design for openness (chapter 5). Findings from the sessions reveal the potential risk of leaving the design completely open: ineffective appropriation caused by misalignment between use and design (chapter 5). How to lower the seemingly paradoxical misalignment between design and use while still maintain the openness in design becomes the focus of the rest this research (tension 2) (chapter 5).
A concept artifact is crafted as an explorative attempt to address the misalignment between use and design (chapter 6). Next, the evaluation of the concept artifact is conducted which results in rich design implications (chapter 7). Insights from the evaluation sessions also help further develop the theoretical model (chapter 8). An alternative design process that's different from the traditional one is put forward and limitations are discussed and directions for future research are sketched out (chapter 8). The report closes by reflecting on the whole project and summarizing the main contributions of this project (chapter 9).
As a response to urgent planetary and societal needs, a critical shift is required on every aspect of how organizations in the construction sector, one of the most resource intensive and pollutant industries, propose, create, and capture value (Bocken & Antikainen, 2019). The circular economy (CE) has been embraced in the architectural discourse as one of the most powerful, innovative, and viable business strategies to achieve sustainability in the built environment. However, architectural firms are still struggling to translate the concept into their business models (BMs) (Urbinati et al., 2017; Accenture, 2014; Khan et al., 2020).
Scholars argue that in order for firms to reorganize their strategies, resources, and structures to those that are free from linear constraints, new dynamic organizational capabilities (particular kills, processes, and organizational activities) are required (Lacy & Rutqvist, 2015; Khan et al., 2020; Bauwens et al., 2020). However, most research on the subject has been developed from a practice-oriented perspective and/or has been primarily focused on large profit-driven organizations, rather than smaller creative firms driven by strategic goals beyond financial revenues (Lu & Sexton, 2006; Bos-de Vos et al., 2017).
Through semi-structured interviews and qualitative data collection with stakeholders in four architectural firms operating in the Netherlands; the research addresses the limited academical research on this field by exploring the Dynamic Capability Approach of the firm as a BM transformation know-how strategy in favor of CE.
The findings indicate that the dynamic capabilities approach is undeniably beneficial for CE implementation among architectural firms. In this regard, the research identifies 15 microfoundations of sense, seize, and reconfigure dynamic capabilities that architects and entrepreneurs can implement to transform the way they create, deliver and capture value. Furthermore, this thesis concludes that architectural firms operate on the basis of a BM portfolio with CE embedded at the project-based level. Finally, the findings suggest that CE has had limited impact in the value proposition of architects but has increased the complexity of their value creations and delivery components, ultimately leading to trade-offs and creative strategies to capture value and ensure the firms survival in still transitionary markets.
Reviewing research in dynamic capabilities revealed a framework that allows firms to respond to digital disruption through constant evolution in capabilities. My desk research uncovered the management research community’s ongoing investigation of dynamic capabilities’ underlying mechanisms known as microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. Examining these capability sub-dimensions showed that aggregated actions of individuals form routines that evolve into the firm’s capabilities. Developing capabilities of any kind starts from the learning and collaboration of individuals with different skill sets, beliefs, and values that make up the organization.
I approached three legacy firms in the low-tech sector of fashion and retail as a case study that exemplifies the problem of digital transformation. They were chosen based on profiles typical of a digitally-transforming firm, such as investments in digital technologies, the appointment of chief digital/information officers, size, and age. In addition to content, the firm’s headquarter operations reside in the Netherlands, and their digital transformation initiatives occurred in the last five years. I consulted annual reports, financial filings, and company press releases to trace their digital transformation journey and validated through individual interviews from digital actors, people involved in the company’s digitalization.
The empirical observations confirmed that the microfoundations perspective fits the research question due to the digital transformation’s multi-pronged approach. However, I did not observe all sub-dimensions of the dynamic capability in the case study companies. Nevertheless, I found at least one of each factor relating to individuals, processes, and structures. For example, the individual dimension emerged in the study due to the central roles of leadership and the workforce’s digital savviness in the transformation process. Furthermore, digital intensity (processual dimension) is a must in digital transformation since substantial digital technology investments are a core requirement. Their interaction and collaboration across different levels of the organization through proximity help build capabilities for digital transformation. The structural dimension also shows that a centrally organized digital initiative can move slower than a decentralized one.
The framework suggests that dynamic building capabilities are rooted in individuals learning and collaborating. Additionally, proximity and the concepts of multi-dimensional relationships (geography, cognition, social, and organizational) facilitate the learning process. My study also suggests that individuals working at different levels of the organizations build firm-level capabilities, hinting at the multi-level characteristics of capabilities of the firm. The research in microfoundations of capabilities has only recently caught traction. Thus, the elements of my thesis form a foundation for future research.
By virtue of its abundance of knowledge, skills and resources, the European Union provides a fervent ground for implementing mission-oriented innovation to address grand challenges, but this fragmentation could also make it an extremely complex scenario to do the same. However, through public funds such as the Horizon 2020 framework programme, the public sector can provide a foundation for initiating mission-oriented policies by funding the early, high-risk and uncertain stages of innovation, which private organizations and SMEs can capitalize on to develop smart innovations. In order to do so, the public sector must possess the appropriate set of dynamic capabilities for bringing private actors to actively work towards developing solutions for addressing grand challenges. Additionally, the fragmentation of knowledge and skills available across member nations of the European Union, industrial sectors or technologies differ, making it highly probable that the degree of private participants in mission-oriented innovation also differs.
This thesis identifies the extent of private participation in European mission-oriented innovation by qualitatively analyzing data extracted from the European Commission's Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) database. A descriptive statistical analysis of the data extracted from CORDIS has identified the current degree of private participation in initiatives encompasses in the Horizon 2020 framework programme. This study identifies the proportion of private participation in the various member states of the European Union and across different societal challenges. It also, identifies the participation of SMEs and incumbent in these initiatives. Based on the results obtained, this study discusses its implications for mission-oriented innovation and provides a scope for possible areas for future studies. Additionally, this study goes one step further to analyze the CORDIS database to understand it benefits and shortcomings.
Lastly, this study also provides recommendations for steering policies in a more effective to better suit actors/researchers/policy makers from specific regions or sectors. The results can be utilized by researchers to conduct studies to identify the dependent variables that directly affect the participation of private actors, which can open up areas of research to understand what factors drive the participation of actors in mission-oriented policies. It also provides insights on the possibilities of using the CORDIS database for steering mission-oriented research.","Mission-Oriented Innovation; Private Participation; CORDIS; European Union; SMEs; Dynamic Capabilities; Sectoral Innovation systems; technological Innovation systems; National Innovation systems; public sector","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2021-09-28","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:fc055caf-8d5b-4072-8b54-ed7c8e23417a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fc055caf-8d5b-4072-8b54-ed7c8e23417a","Process Capability Analysis Considering Asymmetric Tolerance","Krudde, Laurens (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Statistics)","Chen, P. (mentor); Cipriani, A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The classical process capability indices are still the most prominently used by practitioners for asymmetrical tolerances even while not accurately reflecting on process capability. It appears that an adequate measure of capability for asymmetrical tolerances is yet to be discovered. This report formulates a list of five desirable PCI properties and explores some proposed indices developed for asymmetrical tolerances by comparing them to the properties. As none of the discussed indices satisfy all properties, four new proposals are made that improve upon existing indices. The new indices are related to process yield and centering, and compared to the existing indices. Further research is required to determine whether the new proposals are to be used in practice, but for now they serve as a source of inspiration in the development of PCIs for asymmetric tolerances.","Process capability indices; Quality assurance; Asymmetric tolerance","en","bachelor thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Applied Mathematics","",""
"uuid:d7004ec3-ad9f-4a3f-a710-522c3f76559d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d7004ec3-ad9f-4a3f-a710-522c3f76559d","Applicability of a modular powerplant with alternative fuels: A case study to determine the impact on ships operation capabilities and power plant performance, when using a modular power plant for a 2999 gross tonnage general cargo concept ship","Pik, Harmen (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","de Vos, P. (mentor); Hekkenberg, R.G. (graduation committee); Miedema, S.A. (graduation committee); Linskens, Harry (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","This paper examines a case study to determine the effects on system performance of the power plant and ship operational capabilities, this case is a ship designed by the company DEKC. It is a small general cargo vessel of 2999 GrT (Gross Tonnage) called the Future Trader. The ship design is finished and the ship will be equipped with a modular power plant and fuel storage on the aft of the ship. In total four different power plants will be compared. The first is the base line system, this consists of a single internal combustion engine fuelled by Marine Diesel Oil (MDO). The three other systems will be modular systems. They all use the concept of distributed generation. There is looked into a system with three internal combustion engines fuelled by MDO. Besides this there are two fuel cell systems. Each consists of two separated fuel cells and one uses hydrogen and the second ammonia as fuel. For those systems mathematical models are created to compare three modular power plants to each other and to a base line. With those models the effects on the Future Trader's range, fuel costs (operational capabilities) and emissions are researched. A modular power plant is installed on the aft of the ship, constructed of four power packs each in a Twenty foot Equivalent Unit (TEU). The four systems will be simulated on four voyages and the results will be normalised with respect to the first setup. It can be concluded that a modular system with the concept of Distributed Generation (DG) will reduce the ships overall performance in comparison to the single engine diesel electric system (base line). When reviewing the fuel cell systems with respect to the base line system it is found that the ammonia fuel cell system has zero emissions and it still offers a sufficient range. The increases in fuel costs are lower than that of the hydrogen fuel cell system. Hydrogen will also reduce harmful emissions to zero but the reduction in range is more severe. The increase in fuel costs is also significantly higher than for the base line. Overall ammonia seems the most promising of the non hydrocarbon fuels. The DG system is also useful as long as emission regulations remain unchanged. The MDO DG system can be loaded for large distance voyages and hydrogen can be loaded for short voyages if desired.","Ships operation capabilities; Power plant systems; Distributed generation; Mathematical modelling; Modular shipping; Alternative fuels","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Marine Technology | Marine Engineering","",""
"uuid:ccce052b-9440-45b5-abf4-36f89c049e43","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ccce052b-9440-45b5-abf4-36f89c049e43","Future Journeys: A tool for parents of children with special needs to expand their perspective on future thinking","Ribelles Armell, Maira (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Desmet, Pieter (mentor); Stappers, Pieter Jan (graduation committee); Schot, Marise (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","“It’s a given that parenting is hard work. But when you’re raising a child with special needs, the level of care and stress is not just higher, it shifts the foundations of families and adds unimaginable complexities for everyone involved.” (Pinhorn, 2018, www.gottman.com)This project is developed in collaboration with The Ontzorghuis, a Dutch organisation founded to support parents of children with special needs. This assignment aims to enhance the capabilities of the CSN parents’ community to fulfill their basic psychological needs, which are essential for psychological health and well-being (Decy & Ryan, 2008).Inspired by the Capability approach (Alkire & Deneulin, 2009; Sen, 2004; Nussbaum, 2001) a qualitative study was conducted to evaluate the common capabilities that characterise the CSN parents’ community, as well as the individual practices or paths of success that parents come up with to deal with their challenging circumstances. The study consisted of initial desk research based on the social media expression of CSN parents and remote field research that involved 6 CSN parents who participated in a series of generative research exercises and interviews. An innovative approach for remote user research is presented. It is based on metaphorical visualization exercises that are able to engage a sensitive community with little time available into a conversation about intimate and relevant topics that are often difficult to share.The findings collected from this research narrowed down the scope of this project into the topic of future thinking. Many parents experience fear and anxiety when facing the big unknown that supposes having a life-long dependent child. Their capability to think about the future appears as a decisive factor in their wellbeing. The proposed solution, Future Journeys tool, integrates the concept of Resourcefulness (Giaccardi & Nicenboim, 2018) into the context of future thinking. While the capabilities of this community are significantly reduced, the opposite may happen with their resourcefulness (ability to creatively adapt to challenges for which no commonly agreed solution was available). Future Journeys leverages the creative ways of approaching future thinking of some individuals to expand the perspective of relatable others who, although in similar circumstances, experience a negative relationship with the unknown future. The proposed tool is presented with the shape of a mobile phone application that aims to provide CSN parents with a common language to reflect and share their perspectives about future thinking. The solution promotes self-reflection through an exercise of guided metaphorical thinking and completes the experience with social interactions where the users share their perspectives to inspire others. This solution enhances the basic psychological needs of CSN parents. The impact of the tool on its users’ wellbeing was evaluated taking into account Self Determination Theory’s three fundamental needs. Furthermore, the results provided valuable insight into the potential of the tool to expand the capabilities of the CSN parents’ community and helped to draw further recommendations for the future development of the tool.","Parents of children with special needs; wellbeing; future thinking; reflection tool; social media platform; Capability approach; resourcefulness; Self Determination Theory; CSN parents; design for wellbeing; Ontzorghuis; metaphorical thinking; generative user research","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:0f92bb19-d5ee-41bc-9018-ab2873c2caa7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0f92bb19-d5ee-41bc-9018-ab2873c2caa7","International Competitiveness in the European Monetary Union: The case of Greece","Sevdalis, Panagiotis (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van Beers, Cees (graduation committee); Storm, S.T.H. (mentor); Pesch, U. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","The Global Financial Crisis caused by the collapse of the U.S. financial system had immense repercussions for the Eurozone countries. The fall-out of the global crisis turned out to be quite different for the “economically healthy” economies of Northern Europe and “core” and the economies of the Southern “sick periphery”, with the latter still suffering and trying to recover. The problem was acknowledged to be the difference of international competitiveness between the countries of these two groups, while its increase was considered to be substantial for the recovery of those countries which were most forcefully hit from the crisis. Countries of the periphery tried to improve their price/cost competitiveness by implementing internal devaluation and fiscal consolidation policies expecting an improvement on their international competitiveness and balance of payments performance. However, the adopted policies did not bring about the anticipated recovery and extended the period of turbulence for the Member States of the Eurozone and especially for those in South Europe like Greece. The negative experience of Greece and other countries of the periphery confirmed the perceptions of those economists who argued that a country could enhance its international competitiveness in a meaningful and lasting way only through the development of its non-price/technological competencies and structural strengthening of its technological capabilities and national innovation system. Thus, this research investigates how the international competitiveness of Eurozone Member States is affected on the one hand, by its international cost/price competitiveness, and on the other hand by its technological competencies. The econometric findings of this research lead to the recommendation of a policy orientation focusing on the case of Greece.","International Competitiveness; Technological Capabilities; EMU Crisis; Convergence in EMU","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:de16b13e-bc47-4472-b3b5-14395512f48f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:de16b13e-bc47-4472-b3b5-14395512f48f","AI Enabled Dynamic Capabilities: Helping Large Organisations to Overcome Disruptions with a Capability Orchestration Framework","Smith, K.L. (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Santema, S.C. (mentor); Kim, E.Y. (mentor); Plugge, A.G. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Due to globalisation and technological advancements, the world is becoming increasingly complex. Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments have called for organisations to become more agile in order to survive and compete in such changing environments. Large organisations are at particular risk for becoming stagnant due to operational inertia. In order to combat this and achieve agility, dynamic capabilities are developed. These capabilities allow an organisation to more effectively and efficiently change to incoming threats or opportunities. Such changes create uncertainty and insecurity amongst employees which translates into higher employee turnover and decreased performance. Stability therefore needs to be provided for individuals, while achieving dynamacy for organisations. This paradox of dynamic stability drives research into understanding relationships and effects caused by
disruptions. Covid-19 is used as an extreme use case in order to create these understandings. After primary and secondary research conclusions were developed, a conceptual framework was developed in order to orchestrate capabilities. This aims to help speed up the time taken for opportunities/threats to be translated into outcomes. This also aims to help improve the depth, diversity and accuracy of these outcomes.
” What are the implications of a university incubator’s support to academic start-ups to implement open-innovation & develop dynamic capabilities on the growth of academic start-ups?”. From an extensive literature review, a hierarchal conceptual model is developed where a lower order consists of open innovation based activities and higher-order consists of dimensions of absorptive capacity, tested for outcome variable competitive advantage using three constructs- Innovation, Strategic Flexibility and Product development Related Performance. The data is collected using a questionnaire & analyses is done for PLS-SEM using the software SmartPLS3.0. The findings for three sub-research questions are then interpreted to understand growth implications for navigation critical junctures -opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial commitment, credibility & sustainable returns, followed by suggestions for practitioners.","regional innovation systems,; incubator support; triple-helix; academic start-ups; absorptive capacity; Open Innovation; dynamic capabilities; knowledge-based view; competitive advantage; growth of academic start-ups; strategy management; entrepreneurship; PLS-SEM","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:40ad0b1d-a268-42a1-bf25-17c079bd51f5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:40ad0b1d-a268-42a1-bf25-17c079bd51f5","Design as a new policy competency: A Learning Environment for capacity-building in public management","Rita, Federico (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Mulder, Ingrid (mentor); Calderon Gonzalez, Alicia (graduation committee); Mehmeti, Besnik (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Public management field needs to keep pace with contemporary and evolving problems, and therefore invest in and harvest capabilities to meet future scenarios. It is crucial to have a clear vision on the back end of social advising and a staff who is aware of the wideness of its impact. Public managers need to advocate for critical discussions between them, with the organisations they are cooperating with and with people who are going to benefit their decisions. By exploiting typical Participatory Design paradigms, such as a thorough exploration of the problem space, collaborative approach, and iterative development, the dASAP Learning Environment aims at adapting the design practice to the public management domain. The main goal is, therefore, to strengthen the foundation of the public management approach by reframing Design as a new policy competency. The Learning Environment is the result of a participatory and iterative process, carried out in a team setting. This endeavour to create a safe space in which sharing and nurturing capabilities provides a view on the potential of setting up and running a Design-Enabled Innovation process, while also creating an environment that supports innovation within the public domain. The dASAP Learning Environment does not only provide an array of tools and methods, but it goes beyond them by focusing on underlying factors such as values, knowledge, skills and attitudes, creating appropriate conditions for methods and tools to work.","Participatory Design; Design Capabilities; Learning Environment; Public Management; Capacity Building","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:a8c7d60f-7d7c-4fee-9ffc-6a1da0131fa6","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a8c7d60f-7d7c-4fee-9ffc-6a1da0131fa6","Semantic knowledge to assess the capabilities of AUVs for planning","Vredeveldt, Sietske (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Sijs, Joris (mentor); De Schutter, B.H.K. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are unmanned vehicles that are often used for searching an area of the seabed for objects, such as naval mines. For autonomous planning of such search operations, it is useful to be able to infer what tasks an AUV can perform and how well it can do so. The objective for this final thesis project therefore was to develop and implement a semantic knowledge model in the form of an ontology for assessing the capabilities of AUVs that perform mine search operations. For developing an ontology, first the use case and existing ontologies for related topics were studied to obtain an overview of the concepts and relationships that are most relevant for AUVs that perform mine search operations. The ontology was then developed by formalising these concepts and relationships, and by identifying instances of these concepts that are specific to the use case. By implementing this ontology and developing a reasoning process for it, automatic inference of the capabilities of an AUV based on the components it is equipped with was realised. In addition, a data-driven methodology for performance assessment was developed and incorporated in the ontology to provide a basis for automatic inference of the expected performance of an AUV. This performance assessment methodology was tested by performing simulations with an AUV in a virtual underwater environment. These simulations showed that the developed methodology can successfully be used to predict performance under different conditions.","Ontology; AUV; Capability","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Control","",""
"uuid:f61e4103-dfd5-4b4a-bf4f-1351a63d992b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f61e4103-dfd5-4b4a-bf4f-1351a63d992b","A Metric to Quantify the Hazard Avoidance Capability of Vehicles","Hegde, Anoosh (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Tejada Ruiz, A. (mentor); de Winter, J.C.F. (graduation committee); Mullakkal-Babu, F.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Safety is an important parameter considered during the design of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and fully autonomous vehicles.
One of the ways to assess the road vehicle's safety is by estimating the likelihood with which the vehicle can react to prevent the danger.
In the presence of an impending collision (hazard), the trajectory planning module in the autonomous vehicle would generate few escape trajectories to avoid the collision.
The escape trajectory is chosen such that it maximises the safety of the vehicle based on certain criteria.
One of these criteria is the vehicle's avoidance capability throughout the trajectory.
This thesis presents an avoidance metric that is constructed using a computational procedure to quantify the avoidance capability of the vehicle in both pure longitudinal (1-D) and, combination of both lateral and longitudinal (2-D) scenario.
The key idea is (a) Propagate forward in time the current state of the host (and the world) using a vehicle model to estimate the host's reachable set of states.
(b) Carefully select a set of samples from the reachable set and repeat the propagation.
(c) At every step, the trajectories that lead to collisions are eliminated.
The ratio of the size of the region spanned by the remaining trajectories to the size of the region spanned by all the trajectories (including those that lead to collision) then constitute the estimate of the host's avoidance capability.
Through simulations on specific use-cases, for a pure longitudinal motion, on comparison with Brake Threat Number (BTN), it was observed that the metric (from the proposed computational procedure) performs very similar to BTN and also takes a low computational time of 380 [ms] for a time horizon of 2.5 [s].
However, in the presence of dynamic obstacles, major differences in performance (such as discontinuities, step-like variation), were observed between the metric and BTN.
In the case of the combination of both lateral and longitudinal motion, the computation time for the proposed procedure was found to be independent of the number of obstacles.
To reason about the accuracy of the approximation of the reachable set for a double integrator model obtained from the proposed procedure, it was compared with the nodes obtained from Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRT), an under-approximation, and found that the nodes lie either very close or well within the boundary of the approximation.
However, the computation time for the proposed procedure took around 10.87 [s] which comes as a major drawback.","hazard avoidance capability","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Mechanical Engineering","",""
"uuid:0f5f72dd-5524-4163-a2b6-9653092af78e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0f5f72dd-5524-4163-a2b6-9653092af78e","An empirical study on the selection of business models using dynamic capability framework as a tool","Hussain, Yawar (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Werker, C. (mentor); Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Timm, Jendrik (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Truly new business models are enabled periodically by a socio-technological disruption and most of the times, firms have to select and refine the already existing models to foster growth and sustain competition. However, the selection process is challenging as there is no right or wrong business model and what works for one firm might not work for the other. The researchers in the field of strategic management advocate that the selection or design of a business model is dependent on the dynamic capabilities of a firm which is unique to it. Teece D.J. (2018) argued that the three clusters of dynamic capability namely sensing, seizing and transforming make a framework which can be used to select or design a business model and maintain a competitive advantage. However, there exists a shortage of empirical studies that furnish granular details on selecting a business model using dynamic capability framework as a tool. Secondly, the inclusion of a value network is important for the selection of a business model but the framework ignores the complexity and advantages of working in a network environment, a common trend in the present business ecosystem. Hence, with this research, we aim to generate empirical insights and details on the selection of a business model using dynamic capability framework as a took by doing a case study on a firm operating in video on demand [VOD] industry.","Dynamic Capabilities; Business Model; Dynamic Capability Framework","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-08-26","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:22d20222-37b9-4ecd-8632-3edac59052cc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:22d20222-37b9-4ecd-8632-3edac59052cc","Maturity model for the IT-department when migrating to a SaaS-environment","Rijnveld, Justus (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Asghari, H. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","In a period where digitization rapidly influences the corporate world, Cloud Computing (CC) has emerged over the past years as well. CC refers to offering hardware, software, and data by a provider over a network and can benefit organizations enormously regarding cost efficiency, operational excellence, and innovation. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), a delivery model of CC, allows organizations to deploy and use complete applications over the internet, which are managed by an external provider. The use of SaaS can bring firms several benefits, such as scalability, transparency of costs, access to high-end applications, and avoidance of up-front costs. However, it is unclear how the migration to SaaS impacts the IT-department on an organization level, and how IT-departments should adapt to perform in a SaaS-environment. This research contributes to this knowledge gap by investigating which resources and capabilities of the IT-department should change for the IT-department to perform. Propositions were formulated based on a literature research and a questionnaire, and empirical data was collected by means of a case study research. The results show that financial assets, technological tools, organizational structure, management systems, skills, knowledge, organizational culture, contractual governance, and relational governance are important resources of the IT- department, that should change in order to perform. The insights gained from this study can support organizations’ decision-
makers improving the organization of the IT-department when migrating to a SaaS-environment.","Software-as-a-Service; Cloud Computing; maturity model; resource based view of the firm; organisational change; it-department; resources; capabilities; migration","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:3a9f3b06-3fbd-4545-b3e9-50e76745bd7f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3a9f3b06-3fbd-4545-b3e9-50e76745bd7f","The Acceptability of Decentralized Energy Systems: Identifying Value Conflicts Through Simulations Of Decentralized Energy Systems For City Districts","Boijmans, Anne (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van de Poel, I.R. (graduation committee); Chappin, E.J.L. (mentor); Kwakkel, J.H. (graduation committee); de Wildt, T.E. (graduation committee); ten Elshof, Erik (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This research has been performed to help the Dutch government with the decisions and choices it has to make in order to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement and the Climate Agreement. Decentralized energy systems can be a solution for meeting these requirements, however trade-offs have to be made between different system criteria, which are evaluated as values in this research. The aim of this research is to find out what strategies can reduce and deal with value conflicts that can be identified when designing a decentralized energy system considering the properties of a city district. A specific city district is analyzed, i.e. 'De Vruchtenbuurt' in The Hague, the Netherlands. The research starts with an identification of values, conversion factors, governance models and technical designs which are important when changing to a decentralized energy system in 'De Vruchtenbuurt'. Following the Capability Approach is used to structure the different components and the relations between them. Subsequently, a translation of the components into a simulation model is made, using the values to evaluate the acceptability of the capabilities. By analyzing the values that are conflicting (for different conversion groups) for different input parameter settings, insights are gained about possible value conflicts that can emerge in 'De Vruchtenbuurt' and possibly also in other city districts. Finally, an analysis on strategies is developed that can be effective to limit the emergence of the identified value conflicts and therefore possibly support the change to a decentralized energy system in 'De Vruchtenbuurt' and in other city districts. Policies (financial instruments and supporting innovations) that create more feasible solutions for the heterogeneous households are effective to limit the context dependent value conflicts. It is not realistic to eliminate all value conflicts, since some of the values are inherently in conflict with each other. For these conflicts thresholds can be formulated that should be met for every value. Given that value conflicts exist, focusing on the process of the change to a decentralized energy system is seen as important factor for support and participation.","Value Conflicts; Decentralized Energy Systems; City Districts; Acceptability; Capability Approach; Agent-Based Modelling; Exploratory Modelling and Analysis","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","","52.070597, 4.257098"
"uuid:59e79a5f-53e2-45b5-a118-da1f7b43cdea","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:59e79a5f-53e2-45b5-a118-da1f7b43cdea","Adpt: personalizing dashboard experiences","de Visser, Jelmer (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Keyson, David (mentor); van Dommelen, Sjoerd (mentor); Mueller, Nick (mentor); Durieux, Kim (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","This project was performed for a Dutch creative agency with the general objective to demonstrate a new application of personalization in service design. Specifically, the goal was set to stimulate a personalized experience of a future energy dashboard by making the communication of information to users more effective. To that end principles of adaptive user interface (AUI) theory, practice-oriented design (POD) and a mindset framework from the creative industry were combined. Through the concept of ‘Adpt’ this project proposes an AI-based context-aware personalization system that supports the differences in interests and capabilities between different users. Due to the technical expertise required for its effect on the personalized experience of the user was not confirmed. Yet, the results of the qualitative user test performed in the project confirm (1) the dynamic and sometimes predictable nature of users’ interests and capabilities when interacting with an energy dashboard and (2) the diversity of display preferences. These results confirm the relevance of the combination of AUI theory, POD and the mindset framework. It leads to the recommendation for future research to test and build a first AI for the purpose suggested in this project.","personalization; personalized communication; energy; dashboard; sustainability; adaptive user interfaces; practice-oriented design; Fjord mindsets; AI; interests and capabilities","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:41767be9-f48f-468e-abf6-949dbd7cce96","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:41767be9-f48f-468e-abf6-949dbd7cce96","Kernel isolation of a Capability-based security Operating System","in 't Hout, Maarten (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Quantum Computer Architectures)","Wong, Stephan (mentor); van Genderen, Arjan (graduation committee); Langendoen, Koen (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Providing more confidentiality by extending a capability-based OS trough a hardware enforced isolation between the memory of the kernel and other memory. By employing memory tagging and hardware based Inter Process Communication (IPC) this defense gives an overhead of 26 percent.","Memory Tagging; Capability-based security; Genode; Inter Process Communication; Kernel Isolation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:a449d53c-3a46-4d99-9460-1a1c8d081f33","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a449d53c-3a46-4d99-9460-1a1c8d081f33","Acceptability of hydrogen as a sustainable replacement of natural gas in households: A participatory modelling approach for Stad aan 't Haringvliet","de Jong, Vera (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van de Poel, I.R. (mentor); Chappin, E.J.L. (mentor); Kwakkel, J.H. (mentor); de Vries, M.J. (mentor); Wehrmann, C. (mentor); Flipse, S.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Hydrogen technology offers a promising opportunity to mitigate problems that arise due to the energy transition. It can enable storage and balancing for surplus in electricity production from intermittent resources as solar energy and wind power. Electrolysis converts green electricity into hydrogen. Hydrogen is suggested to be introduced into the current natural gas grid as sustainable replacement of natural gas in households. This allows for reduction of CO2 emissions and heating buildings that are not easily insulated. The number of poorly insulated homes is difficult using electrical low temperature heat pumps.
Even though hydrogen offers many functional advantages, there are potential barriers that may restrain the introduction of hydrogen into the energy system. Often siting of large-scale renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels, causes anxiety and societal opposition. The reason for opposition is often distrust in institutions and technology that fails to equally distribute costs and benefits amongst stakeholders, authorities and residents.
To prevent this for hydrogen infrastructure, this research studies how hydrogen technology can incorporate local values. This allows for adapting technology to local needs and involving households in decision making. Acceptable technology and a responsible process increase trust and acceptance when the infrastructure is actually adjusted. This research answers the question which technical design choices provide for an acceptable and responsible design of hydrogen distribution and domestic use to households in Stad aan ´t Haringvliet.
Stad aan ‘t Haringvliet is used as case to research how to identify values and capabilities that play a role when designing hydrogen infrastructure for a specific local context. A participatory modelling approach is developed and executed. The approach involves stakeholders and households in the process of developing an Agent-Based Model. The model simulates the acceptability of hydrogen technology for households and identifies issues to be addressed in the next project phases. The Capability Approach and Value-Sensitive Design form the conceptual basis of this research. The effects of technology on households is assessed in terms of valuable capabilities and individual well-being. Capabilities create well-being as they allow users to choose e.g. how to heat and what technology to buy.
The outcomes of this research are specific local requirements and general knowledge on how to develop acceptable technology. Hydrogen infrastructure is acceptable when it has only a small impact on households and offers comfort and security against the same costs as the current system. Higher costs are possibly acceptable when the new system reduces CO2 emissions or offers higher comfort. However, technology alone is not able to incorporate the whole set of important values. Additional institutional measures as for example information, participation and support are required to gain long term acceptance.
The main research question for this thesis is: “How can a smart charging system be designed which is both used on the short- and long-term and fulfils ethical values of EV owners?”
The purpose of this thesis was to explore and assess different smart EV charging system designs concerning factors contributing to system performance and possible ethical concerns. The research was conducted by creating an integrated framework of both the capability approach and complex adaptive systems. Agent-based modeling was used as the main research method in order to model the behaviour of EV owners within an smart charging environment. The model aims at providing valuable insights concerning which system design performs best with respect to system performance and ethical value fulfilment. Several architectural design decisions are elaborated on with respect to a decentralised or a centralised system. The research outcomes indicate possible short- and long-term ethical concerns of users with respect to the designed system. The effects of these concerns are at this point unknown, but are considered to have an ongoing effect on the performance of the system.
The research objectives involve the identification of four key architectural design decisions which consist of both decentralised and centralised alternatives. The conceptual framework built upon the capability approach, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and complex adaptive systems is used as conceptual basis for the agent-based model. The experimental design revolves around comparing three experimental design alternatives: a (1) public centralised system, (2) public decentralised system, and (3) a private decentralised system. The public centralised system describes a system which is controlled by a single authority, and in which data is stored within an external database. Furthermore, participants are free to participate. The public decentralised system describes a system which is not controlled by a single authority, and in which transactions are validated through shared consensus. Within the private decentralised system, power is exerted towards a single facilitator, which is authorised to whitelist participants. Aside from whitelisting privileges, the platform is not controlled by a single authority. The combined theoretical framework induces a wide variety of uncertain parameters. Therefore, the experimental designs are explored through an EMA study. The main purpose of this EMA study was to assess the three designs with respect to system usage, system performance, and ethical value fulfilment across a wide range of possible scenarios.
The model outcomes provide knowledge regarding promising design directions as well as directions for further research. The developed model describes the interactions between EV owners and the smart charging platform. The performance of the system is based on three constructs originating from UTAUT. These constructs are: performance-expectancy, effort-expectancy, and social influence. The total performance of the system combined with the personality traits of the EV owners determine whether an EV owner uses the system. Effort-expectancy describes the degree of effort needed to participate on the platform. Social influence is rooted within the capability approach and incorporates a combination of effects resulting from direct and indirect interaction between EV owners. Electricity is traded through the use of the platform which creates demand and supply. For model experimentation the KPIs for assessment are: the number of system users, the number of transactions, the number of traded kilometers, and the selected ethical values.
Regarding ethical values, the experimental outcomes provide strong indications that a decentralised system scores best on privacy, security, anonymity, and confidentiality. The scores indicate that problems regarding these ethical values are less expected on the short- and long-term as compared to a centralised system. When aiming to design a decentralised EV charging platform, special focus should be placed on achieving trust, as indications are present that trust issues could arise for decentralised systems. Concerning the KPIs related to system usage and performance, the results indicate that a centralised system is highly preferred. For each of the KPIs (number of users, enabled users, number of transactions, and number of traded kilometers), a centralised system scores higher. However, due to the large number of users, centralised systems have high oscillations in demand and supply.
Concerning the main research question, the research outcomes indicate that when designing a smart EV charging system, one should consider both decentralised and centralised design elements. Both elements are needed as solely focusing on either centralised or decentralised systems has implications for value fulfilment as well as system performance. The optimal combination of design elements is at this point uncertain. The research outcomes clearly indicate that extended research in this field is justified. It is important to further identify which system components in both centralised and decentralised systems positively contribute to the chosen KPIs. These components can then be combined in order to work towards an optimal system design. The operationalisation of the capability approach opens new possibilities to assess these combined design alternatives with respect to system usage and ethical values. In that sense, this thesis provides a tool for assessing the designs of smart charging platforms by providing an integrated framework of the capability approach and agent-based modeling.
The research described in this thesis has several implications for designing smart EV charging systems. The capability approach was found to be a proper method for assessing ethical values concerned with the usage of technology. Furthermore, it was found useful to extent the capability approach with other theories and methods such as the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, complex adaptive systems, and agent-based modeling. Using this approach for assessing smart EV charging systems helps to keep focus on the actual well-being of system users, rather than solely focusing on technological performance. Furthermore, the approach is long-term oriented. Directions for further research are presented. Essentially, these directions stimulate the further exploration of feasible smart charging system designs by extending the scope of design alternatives, further explore the integrated approach of CA and CAS, and further quantify the agent-based model.
The static calculation part of the analysis consists of determining the input uncertainties, the input sensitivities to the output and finally calculating the output uncertainty. The method used for this calculation assumes that either the relation between input and output is linear or can be linearised at the point of interest. The input uncertainties are calculated using historical data of the Bibby Wavemaster 1 which is the vessel used as case study throughout this thesis and is specifically designed for the purpose of servicing offshore wind farms. It is observed that the input uncertainties of the main dimensions of the vessel are clearly reducing when moving through the design stages. Furthermore it is concluded that the environmental coefficients of wind, waves and current are the most uncertain, even in the conceptual design stage where input parameters of the main dimensions of the vessel vary the most. When considering the sensitivity in the three design stages no big changes were observed, meaning that in all design stages the main dimensions of the vessel are most sensitive to the output. Finally the uncertainty in the output was evaluated were it was observed that for the as built stage still a standard deviation of 4% uncertainty of the output is present, resulting in a calculated 99.7% confidence interval of either 12% too high or too low.
In the dynamic calculation part only the as built stage is considered. Again the uncertain parameters are defined but due to the PID controller in the dynamic model some new input parameters are now present. The gains of this PID controller are assumed to be uncertain and are therefore taken into account during the dynamic uncertainty analysis. Due to a limitation in the aNySIM licence bought by Damen it is impossible to change the wave coefficients which causes their uncertainty not to be taken into account. Since the dynamic simulations are considered to have strong non linearities and possibly even discontinuities due to thruster saturation, the calculation method used for the static part is not applicable anymore. Therefore it is decided to use Monte Carlo simulations to quantify the uncertainty in dynamic DP calculations. Due to the large computational time required to perform large amounts of Monte Carlo simulations with aNySIM, a machine learning method is used to capture the dynamic behaviour of the vessel. A small number of simulations performed by aNySIM is required to train the model which are selected using the Sobol design of experiments technique. This technique optimises the choice of the simulation points to make sure the complete space of possible inputs is covered. By using the machine learning model to obtain an output of a dynamic simulation only a fraction of a second is required instead of 17 minutes when using aNySIM. By running the Monte Carlo simulation on the created machine learning model it was observed that the 97.7% confidence interval for offset can either be calculated up to 8.7% too low or too high whereas the prediction for heading up to 23.1% too low or too high when compared to the base case. It is concluded that using DP for the purpose of people transferring by means of a ""Walk To Work"" bridge, uncertainties should be taken into account to reduce both safety and contractual requirements risks.
This graduation project was carried out together with Barco with the intention to unlock the innovation potential of its employees by creating a solid foundation for DLA. To do so, a thorough qualitative research was carried out to discern the challenges Barco faces, its current process structure and an optimal way to develop design capabilities. These aided the design of a new solution that will help Barco reach the state of a well-orchestrated innovation flow supported by employees who share the same mental model and level of capabilities.","design-led ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; co-design; innovation infrastructures; design capabilities; way of working; Agile; organizational design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:3b21bf8b-1d84-4ab6-a757-8cff1be4f579","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3b21bf8b-1d84-4ab6-a757-8cff1be4f579","Strategy on Innovation Capabilities: A first step towards measuring transformation","Klitsie, Barend (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","de Lille, Christine (graduation committee); Tanghe, Jurgen (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","In today’s turbulent economic and technological environment, it is difficult for large enterprises to survive. To do so, innovation is needed. Firms that have perfected the exploitation of their current portfolio now need to focus more on exploring new business opportunities.
Innovation Booster (IB) helps large enterprises to create new business by performing innovation projects together. Throughout recent years, IB has developed towards being a partner in making firms more innovative. As IB transitions towards helping companies perform transformations, they encounter a new challenge: How to measure our transformational effect on clients? This is the question this research originally set-out to answer.
To tackle this challenge, a lean and agile approach was taken. Due to this approach, two insights were gathered quickly. First, a ‘company transformation’ is dependent on the company and the industry that a company is in. This makes it impossible to measure the objective ‘state of transformation’ of a company. Nevertheless a relative measurement (where progress from a base-line towards a pre-determined strategy is measured) might be possible.
The second important finding of the exploration phase is that clients of IB do not have a strategy regarding innovation (and thus transformation). The design goal of this research thus shifted from creating an objective measurement to helping IB’s clients make an Innovation Strategy.
To realise this goal, the Innovation Capabilities Assessment (ICA) was designed. This assessment is based on a framework that was grounded in the Dynamic Capabilities and Innovation Strategy theory. The ICA works as follows: first, data is gathered through use of a chatbot. This data is then visualized and used as input for a qualitative session in which Innovation Managers determine a strategy and pinpoint hurdles to improve Innovation Capabilities. The results of these elements are compiled and presented in a report, together with actions on how to improve the innovation program.
It is important to note that the ICA is only a first step in making transformation more measurable. If IB wants to make more impact on enterprises and transform more effectively, senior management will need to redefine their strategy and develop a follow-up proposition. In contrast with the ICA, this service can aim at objectively measuring improvement of Innovation Capabilities and thereby at measuring IB’s transformational effect.","Innovation Strategy; Dynamic Capabilities; Innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","","",""
"uuid:51171ad4-c67d-466a-bdb4-6db993ab392b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:51171ad4-c67d-466a-bdb4-6db993ab392b","Towards big data analytics embedment in business operations: Perceiving trade‐offs between conflicting capabilities for embedding Big Data Analytics","Steinfort, M.C.J.A.","Herdeiro Teixeira, A.M. (mentor); van der Voort, H.G. (mentor); Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor)","2017","Due to the popularity and complexity of Big Data Analytics (BDA), numerous articles have been published about embedding BDA in business operations. What they have in common is that they use the Resource Based View to assess where a firm need to be capable of to achieve this. However, in practice, capabilities for BDA can conflict with each other. This means that when one capability is developed, it hampers another capability. When both capabilities are developed, unforeseen problems can emerge in later stadiums of the project. Solving these problems is expensive and intensive. Questions emerge on how to perceive these trade-offs and how to consider them. The Resource Based View is incomplete on this part. Therefore, though exploratory research ten generic capabilities are defined that are important for embedding BDA. Conflicting interrelations between them are assessed whereby eight trade-offs are encountered. This perception of these trade-offs is assessed for different business units from the organisation for two case studies. In both case studies the Executive Management tends to underestimate and inconsistently perceive the majority of the trade-offs with respect to the other business units. Therefore, this study emphasises the importance of involving three perspectives when defining strategy for embedding BDA whereby unforeseen problems are aimed to be avoided","Big Data Analytics; Resources; Innovation Adoption; Business Intelligence; Capabilities; Trade-offs; Resource Based View","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering, Systems and Services","","","",""
"uuid:c4bf246e-3932-4d4c-bc2a-8e7a9b7fd708","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c4bf246e-3932-4d4c-bc2a-8e7a9b7fd708","Can ICT Contribute to Achieve Independent Living?: Exploring Capabilities of the Health and Wellbeing Platform","Agahari, W.","Enserink, B. (mentor); de Reuver, M. (mentor); Kroesen, M. (mentor); Keijzer-Broers, W. (mentor)","2016","As the world population is getting older, healthcare expenditure in many countries are increased due to the fact that more people become vulnerable to various health problems. Because of this, elderly people are encouraged to live independently in their own home as long as possible. Promoting independence to elderly people will not be possible without support from society, including voluntary caretakers who took care of elderly people. Hence, it is believed that the health and wellbeing platform as an example of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) could be beneficial to achieving independent living. Nevertheless, the potential impact of such a platform is relatively unknown since this type of platform is still lacking in the market. In addition, availability of such a platform does not guarantee that elderly people will gain any value from it. Therefore, this research aimed to apply the concept of the capability approach to examine why and how ICT, in particular the health and wellbeing platform, can contribute to achieve independent living of elderly people. To do so, we conducted a case study on a health and wellbeing platform in the Netherlands through secondary data analysis and interviews with potential end-users. Our findings showed that such a platform could contribute in achieveing independent living by enabling certain capabilities (find products & services, find activities, manage daily activities, stay connected with others, monitor conditions, arrange help for others) for either elderly people or voluntary caretakers. Enablements of these capabilities are influenced by variety of conversion factors, namely individual characteristics (age, health condition, technological knowledge), individual perception (perceived ease of use, expected benefits, need for technology, satisfaction level), and social contexts (recommendation from closest people & healthcare stakeholders). Our findings provide insights on how this platform could become an intervention tool to support government policies in encouraging elderly people to live independently at home. Moreover, our study also adds another perspective on how to operationalize the capability approach in the comprehensive view of elderly, ICT, and healthcare.","Independent Living; Information and Communication Technology; Capability Approach; Smart Living; Elderly; Healthcare","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering, Systems and Services","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:d7473c49-46df-4244-98c6-4d39a56a6946","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d7473c49-46df-4244-98c6-4d39a56a6946","The effect of digital healthcare and well-being platforms on the capabilities of elderly","van den Houdt, E.","de Reuver, G.A. (mentor)","2016","In Europe there are many countries that are experiencing issues with an aging population. In fact, many countries are changing their welfare and healthcare systems in order to facilitate the change. Consequently, elderly people are required to remain in their own homes for as long as possible and organize their own healthcare. Doing so can be a complex process and assistance in the form of a digital platform can offer the solution for elderly to age in their own households. This type of social innovation and other social functions enabled by a platform can enable elderly to age in place. This research proposes to set up an experiment in order to measure the effect a digital platform has on the capabilities of elderly to live at home. The results show that a digital platform will in fact increase capabilities of elderly. Such a digital platform has not only a positive effect on elderly, but also on their voluntary caretakers. Thereby, the platform enables social innovation by lowering thresholds for users to participate in healthcare tasks. Based on the results, recommendations are made that can be used to further the development of platforms for health and well-being and increase their effectiveness and potentially facilitate widespread societal change","capability approach; social innovation; digital platforms","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering, Systems and Services","","Information and Communication Technology","",""
"uuid:f0a4691e-cbd7-4351-8cbd-687ff7ccfa2e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f0a4691e-cbd7-4351-8cbd-687ff7ccfa2e","Improving the Fuzzy Front End of innovation with the design of a data analytics tool","Zoet, M.D.","Van Heur, R.J.H.G. (mentor); Mulder, S.S. (mentor)","2016","The goal in this report is to develop a proposal towards a data analytics tool that creates value for stakeholders within the fuzzy beginning of the innovation process. This fuzzy beginning is called the Fuzzy Front End. The tool is developed for the Lifestyle Audio division of Harman International, a multinational audio and infotainment manufacturer. Internal stakeholders are interviewed and their daily routines are analyzed to discover their innovation activities. Established methods where data analytics is used to optimize the Fuzzy Front End are analyzed and insights are used to develop two design proposals. One is a theoretical model which proposes a solution for a data analytics tool integration in the innovation process, including services and specialists necessary for an optimized integration of the concept. The second deliverable is the design of the actual data analytics tool which uses data analytics to (1) create transparency within the organization and surroundings with an overview of internal projects and capabilities, but also external technology developments. Second (2) it improves the decision-making process by sustaining Fuzzy Front End stakeholders to create technology and market analysis reports to build exhaustive concepts plus by having an interface where projects can be compared on multiple aspects which enables management to make well-informed decisions. An implementation roadmap will make suggestions towards a successful integration by developing physical touchpoints of the concept and by suggesting project ambassadeurs which will be representing the concept throughout the organization to kick off the project","dynamic capability; fuzzy front end; innovation process; data analytics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","","",""
"uuid:0f87562b-6725-415e-bfb9-f311ff973ad5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0f87562b-6725-415e-bfb9-f311ff973ad5","Operability Analysis of Wind Farm Maintenance with the Damen FCS2610","Sneep, T.P.","Van Oosten, C.A. (mentor)","2016","The Damen Twin Axe Fast Crew Supplier (FCS)2610 is an offshore wind farm maintenance vessel that can safely and efficiently transfer mechanics between land and a wind farm. The thesis objective is to research the operational capability of the FCS by gaining insight into the push docking procedure of the transfer process. To keep the vessels bow steady and in position against the wind turbine tower during push docking, a fender is placed on the bow. Currently, it is not clear which phenomena play a role in making the fender stick or slip. This makes the fender a bottleneck in the relatively low operation profile, leaving room for improvement. In the push docking procedure condition, the FCS is pushed against the turbine tower using thrust generated by the drive train. The fender provides friction between the vessel and the tower. Disturbances by the environment, like waves, cause the bow to either slip or stick along the tower. An unexpected or long distance slip makes it unable for the mechanics to transfer from the FCS to the turbine tower. The objective of this research firstly is to gain insight in the interaction between the fender and FCS’s motion behaviour and its influences on the friction performance – the obstruction of the sliding motions between the fender and wind turbine. A second objective is to develop a prediction method to define safe transfer operations based on the fender-vessel friction performance in a yearly described sea – the operability. By use of calculations and simulations – in which boat, fender and environment are represented as real life components – two models are built that provides a description of the sea behaviour of the FCS and simulates the slick/slipping process of the fender against the wind turbine. In both models irregular head waves are described by a Jonswap spectrum. Model 1 merely represents the stick condition by using a frequency domain approach, in which the FCSs bow is ‘hinged’ against the turbine tower by springs in horizontal, (transversal) and vertical direction. Model 2 describes both stick and slip condition, describing the vessel motion interaction in the time domain. The fender is described by separate components, combining a ‘negative deflection’ based reaction force, a linear spring system and a (modified) coulomb friction block simulating the stick/slip phenomenon. Both models were validated in stick condition with results from towing tank tests. To define safe transfer possibilities, a condition check method judges the simulation conditions to be either safe or to be unsafe for transfers. With this the yearly ability to perform maintenance – operability – is determined. Based on the results of the sensitivity study, several influential design parameters can be identified. During stick conditions, in vertical direction a less stiff fender, higher static friction coefficient and increased thrust results in an increased operability. During stick and slip conditions, the thrust force has a major influence, higher thrust means an increasing operability. The dynamic friction coefficient is concluded to have less influence. The non-linear model causes the operability to be non-linear. In addition the operability is highly influenced by the simulation parameters (most important the friction slope) and the safety restrictions of the condition checker. These are both unknown but arbitrary chosen for this thesis. Therefore further investigation into these parameters is required to provide an accurate description of the yearly operability.","slip; operational capability; operability; hydrodynamics; frequency domain; time domain; catamaran; fender; friction; stick","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering","Offshore and Dredging Engineering","","","",""
"uuid:35e27809-b498-4e69-b846-27108eb4c2e1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:35e27809-b498-4e69-b846-27108eb4c2e1","Maturity model of capabilities to prepare for implementing agile software development","Mercan, S.","Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Ubacht, J. (mentor); Rook, L. (mentor)","2015","","agile software development; capabilities; maturity model; stages model","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","ICT","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:0ba40594-8688-47cc-b4e1-d75e17befa39","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0ba40594-8688-47cc-b4e1-d75e17befa39","The role of non-utility investors in offshore wind farms: A framework to analyse interactions between project governance, investor characteristics, and policy instruments","Makker, C.M.R.","Correljé, A.F. (mentor); De Vries, L.J. (mentor); Künneke, R.W. (mentor)","2015","","conceptual framework; transaction cost economics; transaction cost regulation; dynamic capabilities; behavioural finance; offshore wind investments","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Infrastructures","","SEPAM","",""
"uuid:67e47aaa-c2c1-4a46-89b7-b3270a860afe","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:67e47aaa-c2c1-4a46-89b7-b3270a860afe","Using Big Data in the Public Sector. Uncertainties and Readiness in the Dutch Public Executive Sector","Romijn, J.H.","Klievink, A.J. (mentor); Cunningham, S.W. (mentor); De Bruijn, J.A. (mentor); Putman, G.A.J. (mentor)","2014","","Big Data; Public Sector; E-government; T-Government; Using Big Data; Alignment; Maturity; Capabilities","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy, Organization, Law & Gaming","","SEPAM","",""
"uuid:f37ee12e-17d4-4b81-b89e-0dbdc22f3eb8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f37ee12e-17d4-4b81-b89e-0dbdc22f3eb8","Added Value Framework and Information Technology Capabilities of Enterprise Application Integration","Baskaran, B.","Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Bouwman, W.A.G.A. (mentor); Van der Duin, P.A. (mentor)","2014","This research deals with enterprise application integration with two new perspectives. The two perspectives are added value and information technology capabilities. Enterprise applications are a set of software packages that help organizations run their businesses. Enterprise applications have been used consistently in all industries. This wide usage resulted in new requirements from the users for functional specific and industry specific enterprise applications. This requirement made sure that the enterprise application market is filled with vendors who are developing many specialized enterprise applications. The result of the range of applications led to them becoming silo applications (applications that cannot communicate with other applications). Thus, the new problem came with respect to how to make sure these silo applications communicate with each other without changing the existing business and IT environment. This brought the concept of enterprise application integration (EAI). EAI is defined as the unlimited sharing and coordination of data and business process between any connected application and data source in an enterprise. The two perspectives that this research focuses on addressing the core problem that is existing in integration - users of enterprise applications are neither aware of the value of integration nor are they aware of the capabilities they need to make sure the integration is implementable. Software vendors are also facing stiff competition from the market and are interested in developing integrated solutions. But with a lack of knowledge of the adopter’s requirements, they lack a clear strategy for improving their product offerings. External consultants also face challenges from dealing with different applications and making them communicate as stand-alone systems. Thus, there is no clear focus on why EAI should be done and what capabilities are needed to do it. This research focuses on this knowledge gap by having the following objectives: ? Develop a framework that can be used to assess the added values of enterprise application integration. ? Identify the information technology capabilities needed to implement enterprise application integration. The three applications that form the focus of this research for EAI are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship (CRM) and Multichannel commerce. The research also focuses on Fast Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry since the use of digital channels for shopping is increasing among customers. Another reason why FMCG is a fitting industry for this research is that the important processes in the industry such as logistics, supply chain, customer relations are dealt with by the three applications. These two factors make FMCG an ideal industry for this research. Two theoretical models were used to develop the added value framework namely, Enterprise Application Benefit Framework and Value Creation for E-Business Model. The added value framework developed can be positioned as a aggregation of these two models with the perspective of enterprise application integration in FMCG industry which has not been done before. The research operationalized enterprise application integration using three business processes namely Customer_Order_Online, Customer_Complaint_Call_Center and Marketing_Campaign_Management. All the business processes are developed loosely based on SAP ECC, SAP CRM, SAP-Hybris applications. The business processes were developed keeping in mind that all the three applications under the research have to be involved with each other and must include the stakeholders in the process flow. Information technology capabilities were measured using two dimensions namely human and hardware capabilities. Human capabilities refer to the technical and managerial skills needed and hardware capabilities refer to the hardware storage and speed of computation. Research Method The research technique used for the research is Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Likert Scale. Data was collected from four stakeholders namely software vendors, software adopters, external consultants and academic professionals through an online survey. Conclusions The developed framework determine added value from two dimensions derived from the two existing models. The two dimensions represent two constructs of added values. The first dimension which represents the importance of the added value is categorized as novelty, efficiency, lock-in and complementarities. The second dimension represents the intensity of the added values and is categorized as strategic, managerial and operational. Based on the framework and the business processes that were used to operationalize enterprise application integration, nine added values were identified namely, Improved Business Planning, Increased IT alignment with business, Better Customer Experience Increased Company Common Vision, Improved on time Delivery, Accurate Sales Forecasting, Streamlined business processes, Increased Data Quality, Increase in Sales. These added values were then fitted into the framework based on the business processes previously defined. The developed framework was then tested using the online survey. The results for the second objective indicate that the highest capability needed is cross departmental interaction between IT and business units. This capability is also related to the increase in business IT alignment added value. The need for IT technical employees to gain managerial skills was also the second highest capability needed. The capabilities that were not required were business managers learning IT technical details and more hardware storage for integration. Generalization of the research The framework was developed with the SAP applications and hence the business processes were developed from these applications’ modules. But using this framework for other business processes would not be an issue at all since the framework itself does not rely on the business processes and only the added values are dependent on the business processes. The information capabilities identified are applicable to any type of company irrespective of whether they treat IT as a support or a strategic tool. The framework can also be used to determine the added values of other industries based on the business processes. Future Research More research can be carried out for the validation of the framework and fill the empty slots for combinations of added values that are novel and operational. Other factors that affect the concept of capabilities apart from IT, such as organizational, financial and regulations have to be investigated. Future research must include another important stakeholder in the framework which is the end customers since they are important in the adopter’s strategy. And the framework must be tested in other industries and with other enterprise applications products apart from SAP to make the framework more robust. Limitations of the research The research has five limitations. First, the framework is developed based on business processes suitable for SAP applications. Although the framework is not dependent on the business processes, in order to improve the external validity, more research has to be done on how it changes to other vendor applications and business processes. Second, the list of added values is limited to nine since increasing added values will affect computation of Analytic Hierarchy Process and increases the survey length. Third, the list of business processes is also limited to only three but they are some of the most commonly used business processes. But future research can be done to see if the framework works for other business processes. Fourth, due to the small sample size, this research serves as exploration and first validation of the constructed framework and further research can be conducted to do more extensive validation by means of survey research, mainly through in depth interviews. Finally, the adopters’ size can maybe be a limiting factor for using the framework. Since it clearly distinguishes the organizational levels within a company, SMEs and other smaller companies may not be the most suitable firms to use this framework.","Enterprise Application Integration; added value; multichannel commerce; ERP; CRM; FMCG; information technology capabilities","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-09-02","Technology, Policy and Management","Information and Communication Technology (ICT)","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:2f1d9ae2-7e26-4ac7-97ba-3cd9a185b33d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f1d9ae2-7e26-4ac7-97ba-3cd9a185b33d","Sustainability Maturity Model: The Pilot Sustainability Agenda-Setting in Business","Wortel, M.C.","Korevaar, G. (mentor); Quist, J.N. (mentor)","2013","The Master’s programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. Sustainable development is a young, developing field in which many standards, certificates, and initiatives are spawning. Companies are expected to work on sustainable development by its customers, investors, and society in general. It can be difficult to do this effectively because the field is cluttered and can be confusing. The Sustainability Maturity Model (SMM) presents an overview of sustainability topics and helps companies prioritise between them. The SMM was developed in a collaboration of Ecomatters (a consultancy firm in sustainability and regulatory affairs) and the master programme Industrial Ecology of Delft University of Technology and Leiden University to assist companies with defining their internal sustainability agenda. The SMM does that by supporting companies through providing an overview of the sustainability topics they are expected to manage, and prioritising them. The SMM consists of a list of 29 sustainability topics based on established standards, and is combined with a 5-step level system, that is based on the Capability Maturity Model. This project was commissioned by Ecomatters and its main goal was to operationalise the SMM and execute a pilot with potential users to assess the SMM’s viability as a consultancy product. The second goal was to relate the SMM to current academic literature. The SMM relates to current academic literature. It is based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of ‘People, Planet, Profit’ developed by John Elkington. The TBL is the most widely accepted approach to sustainable development (Stubbs and Cocklin 2008). Sustainable development was defined by the World Council on Environment and Development as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations (WCED 1987). The topic list of the SMM is based on established frameworks: the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, ISO 26000 on Social Responsibility, and Social Accountability’s SA8000. Next to topics from these frameworks, the SMM includes the topic Future Business Activities which is based on the widely used framework Transition Management that was developed to incorporate sustainability trends into the business strategy (Loorbach, van Bakel et al. 2010). The topic ‘Sustainability Awareness’ was added because it is recognised as an important factor for the sustainability performance of a company (McEwen and Schmidt 2007). Since the issues companies “are expected to manage” is an important theme in the SMM, it is important to understand the role business is expected to assume in sustainable development. Business is expected to address sustainability issues through developing sustainable products and processes (Hall, Daneke et al. 2010, Porter and Kramer 2011). Sustainable products and processes are expected to play an important role, but the issues in sustainable development are too complex to be tackled by single organisations (Loorbach, van Bakel et al. 2010). Therefore, business needs to form coalitions with different types of organisations (SustainAbility 2004). The level system of the SMM includes requirements regarding both expectations. The lower levels have to do with the internal processes and the highest level covers collaboration with other organisations. The levels are based on the Capability Maturity Model (Paulk, Curtis et al. 1993) that originated from software development and is now widely used as a basis for managing business processes in a stepwise approach (de Bruin, Rosemann et al. 2005). The level system follows the best practices for maturity models defined by De Bruin et al. (2005). The SMM does not present any final score on sustainability. For individual actors such as companies, ‘being sustainable’ is not possible since sustainability is a property of a system, not of an individual component (Nikolic 2009). The SMM does not prescribe a minimum level anywhere. Individual actors cannot be obliged to not perform unsustainable actions when they intend no harm and when the influence of those actions is too small to change anything (Sinnott-Armstrong 2010). Instead, companies are encouraged to define their own priorities and decide how strongly they want to perform on each individual topic. The SMM was reviewed in four steps: aligning the topics from the different standards, supplementing the topic list with findings from academic literature, fitting the level system to the CMM and the situation, and testing its operationalisation in a pilot. After the review, the SMM was operationalised by creating a leaflet that introduces potential participants to the pilot, an one-page introduction to the workshop, a presentation to guide the workshop, a set of forms to guide the consultant through the workshop and make quick notes on, and a format for the feedback report the companies received after the pilot. Eight companies in the chemical, food and energy industries with revenues of 176 million to 3,7 billion participated in the pilot. They were represented by one or two of their managers in sustainability (six companies) or communications (two companies). During the 3-hour workshops, the topics in the Sustainability Maturity Model were discussed one by one. After the workshops had been held, the participants received feedback reports that analysed their results as well as the average results of the entire group. The gap analysis and recommendations about topics to work on formed the core of these reports. The participants were phoned to discuss the value of this feedback and how it could be used within the company. From the perspective of the participants, the workshops and feedback reports were useful. The participants appreciated the broadness of the topics list, the structured approach, the face to face interaction, and the emphasis on prioritising. Applying the same management framework to each topic and being selective about the topics to work on was seen as a novel approach. Most of the participants felt that their feedback report provided useful input for determining the focus of their strategy. The SMM was tested with medium and larger sized companies and found suitable when the participants were open to the approach. According to an industry expert, it could be useful for smaller companies as well. The usefulness of the model depends on how open the company is to its approach of prioritising and advancing within a topic list. Even though literature research and the reactions from the participants show that the SMM is suitable for its intended use, several practical improvements could increase the usefulness of the SMM process further, the main recommendations being: conducting the workshop with multiple people to increase data quality, preparing them for the workshop better to save time during the workshop, and providing more detail on the requirements per topic in the feedback so it is easier for participants to define follow up actions. By doing workshops with a large group of similar companies the benchmarking function of the SMM can be improved, which is a feature the participants of the pilot asked for. Before this project, the concept of the SMM was defined, but it was not ready for use in a consultancy context yet. This project has strengthened the link between the SMM and current literature on sustainable development in the business context, has made the SMM usable, and the first pilot was conducted. The pilot was the first presentation of the SMM to potential users, and their predominantly positive reactions have shown that the SMM is now ready for use in a consultancy context. The SMM and the work done for it during this project are property of Ecomatters. This report contains the part of the information that was selected to be publicly available. Company results have been aggregated and anonymised, and parts of the analysis and description of the model have been omitted in this report to guarantee the confidentiality of this information. Parts of the analysis and description of the model were retained to serve as examples of the further development of the SMM and the results of that process.","sustainability; sustainable; agenda; priority; business; pilot; model; consultancy; manage; ISO 14001; SA 8000; Capability Maturity Model; company; EMAS; DJSI; ISO 26000; standard; guideline; people; planet; profit; GRI; topic; level; operationalise; organisational capability; management; maturity; capability; improvement; test; interview; feedback; workshop; benchmark; comparison; ambition; supply chain; life cycle; strategy; business strategy; partnership; collaboration; triple bottom line; prioritise; compare; collaborate; consult; consultant; companies; businesses; improve; capable; mature","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Energy & Industry","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:25d72452-9dde-4180-83cd-20644dff10cb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:25d72452-9dde-4180-83cd-20644dff10cb","IT Driven Business Service Innovation: IT organizational contributions in large digitized companies to effective business service innovation","Kleiberg, E.H.","Van Beers, P.C. (mentor); Den Hartigh, E. (mentor); De Reuver, G.A. (mentor); Kramer, M. (mentor)","2013","Services play a key role in today’s leading global economies. Companies are facing fierce competition, shortening development cycles of new technologies, and more demanding customer expectations. Innovation is a key driver for economic growth and competitive advantage. New technology is one of the largest sources for innovation, but IT is identified as the largest barrier to effective service development. Studies indicate that IT organizations are is ranked last as the source of new ideas and the CIOs are least involved in the screening decisions of ideas. The growing importance of service innovation and IT has created opportunities for IT organizations to contribute to more effective service introductions. IT organizations can provide their technical knowledge and contribute to selection of ideas on both technical feasibility and compliance with existing capabilities. Nonetheless, IT organizations are often pressured to remain facilitators or technology enablers as conceptual understanding and appropriate innovation mechanisms are missing. The objective of this research is to further develop the understanding of the mechanisms for IT organizational contributions to effective generation, selection and commercial evaluation of business service innovation projects. Understanding is supported with two conceptual frameworks on IT innovation capabilities and by comparing them to large Dutch companies in financial, communica- tion, media and high-technology industries in an electronic survey and two case study examples.","IT organization; service innovation; NSD; capability; service process performance","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2013-08-26","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:63f00400-832a-4b75-b96f-f398d6998b7d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:63f00400-832a-4b75-b96f-f398d6998b7d","Capability Maturity Model of Corporate Social responsibility","Fens, A.C.F.","Roeser, S. (mentor); Doorn, N. (mentor); Filippov, S. (mentor); Van Ketel, H. (mentor)","2013","The development of a CSR capability maturity model to assess an organization's CSR performance, based on the actions and expectations that are given by the ISO26000 guideline. The research includes a study to view CSR as an organizational innovation, which has been established theoretically and validated through interviews. The development of the CSR capability maturity model first starts with the development of a CSR maturity model. The maturity model has been validated through a session of interviews and a questionnaire. A qualitative study categorizes all CSR actions and expectations from the ISO26000 guideline into the maturity model, transforming the maturity model into the CSR capability maturity model. The CSR capability maturity model has then been tested in a case study research on one organization.","Corporate Social Responsibility; CSR; maturity; capability; corporate; social; responsibility; iso26000; organizational innovation; innovation; organizational change","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2013-05-13","Technology, Policy and Management","Philosophy","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:957061f0-c97f-41ec-b8f9-49e8001533da","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:957061f0-c97f-41ec-b8f9-49e8001533da","Social Entrepreneurship in Kenya","De Vlieger, L.E.","Kroesen, J.O. (mentor)","2013","The subject of this research is the promotion of social entrepreneurship in Kenya. There are almost no medium-sized businesses in Kenya which indicates that there is a lack of growth of the many micro and small enterprises. The research investigates what the pitfalls and barriers in culture and in the institutional framework for the country’s entrepreneurship are. Certain cultural dimensions as community feeling, particularism, power distance, and fatalism are discussed, next to some institutional problems as bureaucracy, corruption, and tribal issues. Civil society is examined as an important factor influencing development in a country. It was found to be coming up, but not yet fully developed in Kenya. Recommendations on what would be beneficial changes to promote social entrepreneurship in Kenya are given in terms of cultural transition and institution building. Means to assist these changes are identified in the form of education, gender equality and urbanization. Finally, the theory of the Capability Approach is used as an evaluation tool to indicate the social impact that the proposed transitions in cultural dimensions and developments in entrepreneurship have. This attempt will gain insight and provides a step towards applicability of the theory in practice in relation to cultural values with an emphasis on social entrepreneurship.","social entrepreneurship; civil society; cultural transition; institution building; Capability Approach","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Values and Technology","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:ff501f3e-9e26-4e9e-a609-edd2b48c17dc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ff501f3e-9e26-4e9e-a609-edd2b48c17dc","An approach of a maturity model for assessing offensive cyber warfare capability of countries","Oedit, S.M.","Daskapan, S. (mentor); Zand, F. (mentor); Te Velde, R. (mentor); Van den Berg, J. (mentor)","2012","The number of cyber-attacks creates the realization that the vulnerability of critical infrastructures of a country are increasing. The numbers of cyber-attacks are so high that governments fear a cyber war. This makes it important for governments to prepare their nation for cyber war. To be able to make the right preparation and to design the right resilient systems it is necessary to know how dangerous other countries can be by measuring their offensive cyber warfare capabilities. This leads to the design of a model based on offensive cyber warfare attributes and public indicators for the assessment of offensive cyber warfare capabilities. The aim of this research is to provide an approach of a maturity model to assess offensive cyber warfare capabilities of countries based on public data, by which governments can make better decisions and policies to prepare themselves for cyber war. The research has been started with an in depth desk research describing the process of cyber warfare, which resulted in a diagram with 6 categories. These categories have been defined based on some literature about traditional warfare and an analogy about individuals in war. The 6 categories describing the process are: Motivation, Channel, Target, Means, Method and Damage. This diagram shows the difference between traditional and cyber war. Only offensive cyber warfare attributes are specified in this diagram. This was necessary for finding the indicators for offensive cyber warfare capability. From these 6 categories only two have been used to define offensive cyber warfare capability. Motivation level does not contribute to capability level, but to the threat level. If one is motivated, it does not necessarily mean that one has the capability. The channel is the environment where the cyber attack is launched. Having access to the channel, having knowledge about it and skills for operating in this medium is necessary to launch a cyber attack. So channel is an important group to consider for assessing offensive cyber warfare capability. The Target actually does not decide on the capability of another. So this is not important for the design of the model. The Means are very important to assess the offensive capability level, because having the ability to create the means, having access to them and the ability to use them shows how capable one is. The Method is the way how the attack is performed for example from behind or from the front and thus is not contributing to the assessment of the capability level. Also Damage is not contributing to the capability of a country, because anyone can cause damage by hiring others. So based on this analysis Channel and Means are important for assessing the offensive cyber warfare capability level. Based on these 2 classification and their details in the diagram the indicators for offensive cyber warfare capability have been identified. This resulted in a theoretical model showing the relation between the indicators and the cyber warfare attributes. As data to direct indicators are limited, an approach of a model has been given based on proxy variable and indirect indicators for which data was available. Finding data for indirect indicators has been difficult as well, but there are 16 indicators for which data has been found. The dataset for offensive cyber warfare capability was not available, so a proxy variable has been used. The closest proxy variable based on the categories Channel and Means is the ICT development index, which describes the access to, use of and skills in ICT. ICT development has been build from 11 indicators, from which 9 are the same for offensive cyber warfare capability. The assumption has been made that the ICT development index is a data collection method for offensive cyber warfare capability. Using the 16 indicators and the proxy variable the model has been designed following some analysis as is shown in the flowchart. The flowchart describes the statistical analysis in SPSS. On the 16 indicators factor analysis was done, which resulted in 4 factors that are the independent variables to explain offensive cyber warfare as the dependent variable. As there is no such dataset for the dependent variable the ICT development index is used in its place. Based on a linear regression the equation has been found; this is the model to assess offensive cyber warfare capability. Due to limitation only an approach of a model for assessing offensive cyber warfare capability has been given, which is based on proxy variable and indirect indicators. The equation in this report is a first approach of a model assessing offensive cyber warfare capability, on which further research can be conducted. The growth in capability level is described by maturity levels. There are 5 maturity levels defined for offensive cyber warfare capability based on the Channel and Means capability, which are: Beginners, Semi-intermediate, Intermediate, Semi-advanced and Advanced. In chapter 1 an introduction has been given, describing the aim of this research, the research questions and the research methods. In chapter 2 the theoretical background has been built resulting in a diagram describing offensive warfare, maturity levels and a theoretical model for assessing offensive cyber warfare capability. Chapter 3 gives an approach of a model and the statistical analysis to be performed. Chapter 4 has been devoted on reflection and the report ends with conclusions and research relevance.","cyber warfare capability; maturity; indicators","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","ICT","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:d6ee5556-0015-49d9-ae69-4624fce9fe6b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d6ee5556-0015-49d9-ae69-4624fce9fe6b","The Coherence Premium","Van Braam Houckgeest, A.Q.","Den Hartigh, E. (mentor); Roosenboom-Kwee, Z. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Reunis, M.R.B. (mentor); Cools, K. (mentor)","2012","Evidence was found for the partial explanation of firm succes from a new point of view: coherence. A positive relationship was found between coherence, a specific form of strategic fit between a core capabilities system, a way to play (strategy) and a product and service portfolio, and premium (above normal financial performance, measured by sales growth, EBIT margin, ROA and P/E ratio). With a sample of 7000 MD&A's from 10-K filings, a coherence score was calculated using textual analysis (counting indicative words). The coherence scores were divided into three equally sized groups. The high coherence score group was found to outperform the low coherence score group for all metrics at a significance level of 0.10. For sales growth the differences were the largest: 9.5% and 12.1% for the low and high coherence groups respectively, with a significance level of 0.01.","coherence; strategic fit; strategic alignment; core capabilities; strategy","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-09-14","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:26a5ae1a-e3cc-46bc-9049-fc87548d0f7d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:26a5ae1a-e3cc-46bc-9049-fc87548d0f7d","Developing an Impact Evaluation Framework for Product Designers Inspired by the Capability Approach: A Case Study on the Philips Chulha","Van der Marel, F.","Keyson, D.V. (mentor); Mink, A. (mentor); Isik, F. (mentor)","2012","Within the field of Product Design is an increasing interest in designing with emerging markets. Considering how long people have already been concerned with increasing global living standards it is surprising how little has been achieved. This suggests our current methods are insufficient. The Capability Approach (CA) by Amartya Sen offers a new way of assessing inequality and poverty, focusing on what people have reason to value to be or do. Products can be means to achieve these beings and doings. An evaluation framework inspired by this philosophy was developed. The framework was tested in a case study. The sociological impact was evaluated of the Philips Chulha, a subsidized cooking stove implemented in tribal India. The impact in terms of the CA was identified and explained using Kleine's Choice Framework and Bourdieu's concept of habitus. The framework was successful in engaging into deep dialogues with the target users. The interpreter appeared to be highly influential on the way the study was executed. Since the research was conducted in one region, no firm statements could be made based on this single case study. The framework needs further testing and developed in order to increase the collaboration between the interviewer and the interviewee. Eventually product designers can use the improved evaluation framework as a prospective framework to uncover design opportunities for developmental purposes.","evaluation framework; Capability Approach; emerging markets; product impact; Philips Chulha","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2013-08-15","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Design Research for Interaction","",""
"uuid:2b173fb0-be64-4065-b44b-8a200819d69e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2b173fb0-be64-4065-b44b-8a200819d69e","The Emergence of the Sustainable Development Maturity Model","Kamperman, M.M.H.","Korevaar, G. (mentor); Quist, J.N. (mentor)","2012","The Master’s programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. Over the last few years the general awareness concerning sustainability increased significantly. Also companies are making big efforts to make their processes and products more sustainable. One of the key concepts in this search to more sustainable processes is the concept of Sustainable Development which is often defined as development that 'meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. A concept within Sustainable Development which is often used is the Triple Bottom Line, which indicates the three pillars of sustainability: people, planet and profit. Within companies Management Systems focussed on environmental or social aspects are used to manage sustainability topics. These Sustainability Frameworks are used to identify and manage topics related to the sustainable performance of companies. Three major concepts within the management of Sustainable Development are Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Management System and Environmental and Social Reporting. An overview of a large number of available sustainability frameworks, as well as their properties has been made. The Capability Maturity Model is a model which is used in a wide variety of industries to indicate the maturity of different capabilities for processes within an organization. Based on the outcomes of the model the organization can improve its processes to disciplined management processes. The main advantages of a Capability Maturity Model are increase of business success, increase of cost effectiveness, possibility to combine with other technologies such as ISO standards, used in wide-variety of industries, long life-span and a good reputation among government and research institutes. Within this research the concept of the Capability Maturity Model has been combined with insights from the field of Sustainable Development in order to improve business performance in a sustainable manner, the Sustainable Development Maturity Model. The following components have been identified as essential for building a new Capability Maturity Model: A number of levels, General descriptor of each level, Generic description of the contents and characteristics of each capability level, A number of Key Performance Areas or dimensions, A number of topics and activities for each Key Performance Area, A description of each activity as it might be executed or performed at each maturity level. Six levels for the Sustainable Development Maturity Model have been defined based on existing definitions in other Capability Maturity Models and insights from the field of Sustainable Development. Level 0 indicates compliance to regulation and is a bottom-line requirement. For level 1 to level 5 generic definitions for the levels have been made containing contents and characteristics of the level as well as a generic descriptor for the levels. These descriptors are respectively: Initial, Initial Transformation, Light Sustainability, Sustainable Transformation and Reinforced Sustainability. A scoring system has been developed to indicate the correlation between the different layers of the system. The score of the different topics can be filled in at layer 5. The lowest score of the topics results in the score for the activity. The average score for the activity result in the score for the Key Sustainability Areas, unless there is a score 0, then it will result in a score 0. The lowest score for the Key Sustainability Areas result in the score for the framework (or the condition). The sensitivity of the scoring, which means the influence of a certain score on the end-result, has been tested using several cases. The information on the above mentioned frameworks have been expanded with information from its websites and quantitative information from websites as www.springerlink.com. From this list of frameworks three different frameworks have been selected for use in the Sustainable Development Maturity Model, one for every main category of conditions (Worker, Social and Environmental). By using knock-out criteria the number of frameworks was reduced to 8 (ISO 14001, ISO 26000, EMAS, OHSAS 18001, SA8000, AA1000, the Natural Step and Global Reporting Initiative). By looking to the background of the frameworks as well as the popularity of the frameworks ISO 14001, ISO 26000 and SA8000 have been selected for the Sustainable Development Maturity Model for respectively Environmental Conditions, Social Conditions and Worker Conditions. From the selected frameworks Key Sustainability Activities and Activities belonging have been identified. It appeared that a number of Key Sustainability Activities was overlapping and thus choice have been made to exclude certain aspects to prevent doubles. For all Activities definitions have been made as well as a descriptor for each Activity. For the Social Conditions also definitions have been made for the Topics as well as a descriptor for the Topics to show that it is possible to work on this level of detail within the Sustainable Development Maturity Model. The found Key Sustainability Areas and Activities have been validated using publications of several well-performing companies (by means of sustainable performance). As soon as the maturity of an organization for different aspects has been determined the organization may decide to work on certain aspects. For this several practices in order to improve the maturity of the organization have been suggested. Within this research changes for three different fields of organizational improvement have been suggested: firstly an overview of aspects to improve the organizational performance of an organization, secondly the improvement of organizational processes, including a new organizational structure and thirdly by looking to the organizational learning processes. A reflection of how these practices can be used have been given as well as an overview of how aspects to improve the organizational performance can specifically be used to improve the performance of an activity or topic from one level to another. Finally a concept version of the model has been made using Microsoft Excel showing that it is possible to build the model with previous steps. A reflection has been given on the use of the model and on the challenges and limitations as identified in the introduction of the thesis. A total overview of the model in one figure has been given showing the relation between the different steps. This thesis ends with the conclusion that it is possible possible to combine insights from the field of the Capability Maturity Model with insights from the field of Sustainable Development. In further research the Sustainable Development Maturity Model should be further developed and it should be determined if the model has an added value for the sustainable management and performance of an organization.","Sustainable Development; ISO 14000; ISO 14001; Corporate Social Responsibility; Industrial Ecology; Environmental Management; Capability Maturity Model; ISO 26000; SA8000; Management of Sustainability; Organizational Development; KPA's","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-09-01","Applied Sciences","Multi-Scale Physics","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:d69f927a-84c5-4c29-896c-43877406d9b9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d69f927a-84c5-4c29-896c-43877406d9b9","Designing the IdeaBooster: A competencies connector in major innovations","Simons, C.J.M.","Smulders, F.E.H.M. (mentor); Wehrmann, C. (mentor); Van der Sanden, M.C.A. (mentor)","2012","This thesis investigated the problems surround major innovations in companies from the perspective of major innovation capability. Based on the problems the IdeaBooster was designed to support companies in connecting to the right people by leveraging their networks.","major innovation; competencies; major innovation capability; networks","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Strategic Product Design & Science Communication","",""
"uuid:4c9685ac-3f76-41c0-bae5-a2a96f4d757e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4c9685ac-3f76-41c0-bae5-a2a96f4d757e","Optimal Thrust Allocation Methods for Dynamic Positioning of Ships","De Wit, C.","Van der Woude, J.W. (mentor); Gachet, M. (mentor)","2009","The first Dynamic Positioning (DP) systems emerged in the 1960's from the need for deep water drilling by the offshore oil and gas industry, as conventional mooring systems, like a jack-up barge or an anchored rig, can only be used in shallow waters. GustoMSC has been developing DP drill ships since the early 1970's and it is still one of their core businesses. DP systems automatically control the position and heading of a ship subjected to environmental and external forces, using its own actuators. The thrust allocator of a DP system is responsible for the thrust distribution over the actuators of the ship. Apart from minimizing the power consumption an ideal thrust allocator can also take other aspects into account, such as forbidden/spoil zones and thruster relations. Because the Lagrange multiplier method, used inhouse by GustoMSC for thrust allocation, cannot accurately describe fullscale DP systems with rudders and forbidden/spoil zones, new methods need to be explored. Various optimal thrust allocation methods for dynamic positioning of ships are considered and their practical use is tested with DP capability calculations and time domain simulations with online optimization routines. The shortcomings of Lagrange multiplier methods are illustrated and quadratic programming methods combined with disjunctive programming techniques are used to present a more elaborate solution to optimal thrust allocation problems. Using disjunctive programming each actuator is modeled by a finite union of convex polygons representing the attainable thrust region. This approach allows combinations of non-rotatable thrusters, rotatable azimuth thrusters with forbidden/spoil zones and main propeller/rudder pairs to be used. As a consequence the allocation problem decomposes into a finite number of subproblems that all need to be solved separately in order to find the optimal solution of the main problem. For time domain simulations the dynamic limitations of the thrusters are taken into account by adding more convex thrust regions to the problem. Briefly, the potential use of linear matrix inequalities for optimal thrust allocation problems is treated. The obtained results are discussed and conclusions are given.","Dynamic Positioning; Thrust Allocation; Lagrange multiplier; Optimal Thrust Allocation; Quadratic Programming; Disjunctive Programming; DP Capability Plot","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics","","","",""