Over the course of the past centuries, humanity’s influence on the Earth’s atmosphere and climate system has become so significant as to induce geophysical feedback effects, specifically in the form of a self-reinforcing process of global warming. In order to contain the global warming and prevent the expected impacts of climate change from happening, it has become imperative to undertake drastic steps directed towards reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (including CO2). Action needs to be taken soon, as with the growing population, the demand for carbon-intensive (conventional) energy sources is growing and thus greenhouse gas emissions (the main cause for global warming) are increasing. To slow down global warming, energy conservation, energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy generation are the only practical solutions available to mankind...

Healthcare services in the developing countries are suffering from lack of equipment, expertise and infrastructure. Sexual reproductive health is one of these health areas in which the public health sector is not meeting the growing demand and it is defined as unmet need for family planning. To address this need, international agencies have been operating in the developing world with the aim of making sexual reproductive health services accessible to everyone while assuring good quality. Health franchising is a healthcare service delivery model that is operated by international NGOs and private sector in these regions. As a type of social franchising, health franchising uses commercial franchising mechanisms in order to generate social welfare. The business model of health franchising is based on creating a network of franchisees, utilizing the existing private clinics while providing them with subsidized commodities, training, monitoring, promotion of the network and incentives. In return, the franchisees are promising to stay loyal to the franchisor’s standards and periodically report their performance. Although health-franchising programs have been active and constantly expanding their operations, there are limited studies on the business model and its cost effectiveness. This study aims to explore health franchising, the business model, performance and cost effectiveness in comparison to other healthcare service delivery models in the developing world. For this purpose, a cost effectiveness analysis is conducted on the operations of a health franchising program to calculate the input/output ratio in terms of cost per health impact generated. The value adding mechanisms and impact of health franchising are further discussed through interviews. Findings are interpreted into a set of practical recommendations and an experiment blueprint for a standardized evaluation of health franchising programs. Findings from the case of PSI Myanmar suggest that the cost effectiveness ratio of health franchising is within the limits of similar health service delivery models in the developing world. Apart from its cost-effectiveness, there are other factors such as quality, perception of comfort from the patients and the robust supply chain that make this business model successful in the context it operates.

National policies that seek to stimulate the energy transition require attention with the requirement for generation sources that can compensate for moments when wind and solar plants are not available. Electricity supply needs to adjust to demand in real-time, at least until energy storage becomes commercially viable, otherwise the energy security is compromised. Hence, the dilemma for energy policies is to continue to promote the expansion of renewables at the same time they secure the provision of flexible sources. One well-known technology for such is the combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT). It has been used for a long time, however now there is concern over its economic viability due to the merit order effect of renewables. Germany is a front-runner in the energy transition and, recently, it enacted the Energy Market 2.0 to lay out a market design to accommodate the increasing intermittency. The underlying belief is that a competitive environment will allow market forces to provide the necessary flexibility in an economic efficient manner. Hence, the success of the Energiewende in this new policy framework depends on how the generation firms perceive the market conditions and investment incentives. This research investigates how these market actors and the federal government will perceive CCGT generation competitiveness, using generation costs as a criterion and external costs to account for social efficiency. A tailored Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) calculation is used to evaluate a CCGT power-plant in the context of a high presence of renewables. The method is broadly used and conveys the complexities of investment appraisal in a relatively simple manner, however there is no prior research that applies it to the described scenario. Energy storage is also investigated for comparison purposes. This research finds that CCGT generation firms in Germany will not have sufficient incentive to invest in new power-plants between 2020 and 2030. It is also found that the technology is not a cost-effective option for flexibility from a societal perspective either. Energy storage is more cost-advantageous than CCGT, especially when external costs are considered. Therefore, CCGT plants are expected not to be attractive for generation actors under the German energy policy framework. Vanadium batteries pose as a promising alternative for the system after 2030, but its uncertain cost development requires public investment to guarantee it effectively becomes competitive. Policies to incentivize CCGT generation seem economic inefficient and are not advisable, as the implementation of new plants during the next ten years would create long-term lock-ins.

With the decision made to act upon climate change, the remaining question is: "How?". Economic theory suggests that the most efficient method is by means of market-based policies. These policies are often designed based on Integrated Assessment Models like DICE, which is the subject of this thesis. Integrating uncertainty into this model has been the aim of the thesis. The stochastic version of DICE, EICE, showed to be sensitive to the distribution of climate uncertainty, but results were less explicit then expected. Overall, the conclusion is that both modest and more strict mitigation policies can be justified based on EICE.

How can a project manager adapt the project plan for an innovation project to the context? This question leads to other matters, such as why is it important for a project leader to adapt the project plan to the context? Firstly, suppose a firm in a market and the executives of the company plan to grow the organization through innovation projects. Then, the executives need to select the project leader based on the personality of the project manager candidates because the project manager’s personalities influence the project success (Müller & Turner, 2007). This step indicates the necessity of analyzing the personality of the project manager candidates. Subsequently, the project manager must create a project plan. In drafting the project plan, the project manager needs to make several decisions depending upon the context because nowadays, firms need to adjust their business decisions depending on contextual factors (Ortt & Van der Duin, 2008). Thus, this step indicates the importance of adapting the project plan to the context. Nevertheless, those practical problems are not resolved yet because no literature connects between the decisions in making a project plan, the contextual factors, and the project leader’s personalities. Literature reviews and experiments are conducted in this study. Firstly, the literature reviews summarize the theory explaining the decisions in making a project plan, the contextual factors, and the project leader’s personalities as well as generate some hypotheses. Secondly, the experiment, aiming to test the hypotheses, asks the TPM TU Delft student to fill out the questionnaires. Then, the 162 valid data were analyzed to form three groups of variables: (a) project plan variables, comprising 37 variables; (b) contextual factor variables, encompassing 2 variables; and (c) project leader’s personality variables, entailing 29 variables. Furthermore, the relationships between the project plan variables and the contextual factors are investigated using analysis of variances. Next, the relationships between the project plan variables and the project leader’s personalities are examined using regression. Lastly, the relationships between the project plan variables and the contextual factors controlling for the project manager’s personalities are analyzed using analysis of covariances. The results show that two contextual factors have influences on the decisions in making a project plan. Likewise, two out of three project leader’s personality variables have effects on the decisions in creating a project plan and moderate the connection between the contextual factors and the decisions in making a project plan. This study has both scientific relevance and practical relevance. In scientific relevance, this study provides newly developed scale measuring the decisions in making a project plan. Likewise, this research brings up the application of the contextual factors theory to the project management as well as the application of the people’s personality theories to the project management. On the other hand, in managerial practice, this research can be a guidance for the executives to appoint a project manager based on the personalities of the project manager candidates and for the appointed project manager to create a project plan depending on the contextual factors.

In 2020, the world was hit by a global pandemic through COVID-19, causing millions of deaths worldwide. The last two years proved that a health-related crisis like COVID-19 strains us as a society and the capacities of health systems worldwide. Severe infections of COVID-19 require higher capacities of hospital beds, ICUs with ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment. For health systems, the question arises of how to secure enough PPE and ventilators before and during a health-related crisis like COVID-19. This research explores how health systems can create responsive and prepared supply strategies to meet the rising demand for critical medical supplies during health-related crises. Concerning the availability of critical medical supplies, preparedness entails stockpiling as a supply strategy. Furthermore, preparedness entails actions decision-makers in health systems can take to increase the effectiveness of responsive supply strategies. Responsiveness refers to supply strategies used at the beginning of a health-related crisis in the short term. Responsive supply strategies include ramping up domestic production, supporting innovations, loaning medical supplies, and purchasing medical supplies from the world market or through direct tender. In this research, a System Dynamics model was developed to explore how health systems can create resilient and responsive supply strategies, a System Dynamics model was developed, focusing on the English health system as an example for the Global North. Given the deep uncertainties surrounding the supply chain of critical medical supplies, Exploratory Modelling and Analysis was conducted to identify candidate policies and explore their performance given the uncertainties. Specifically, uncertainties affecting the success of purchasing supplies through direct tender and from the world market had the most impact on the availability of PPE and ventilators. The results of the analysis and the findings in the literature provide the following recommendations to decision-makers in health systems to create prepared and responsive supply strategies that ensure the availability of critical medical supplies during health-related crises. Decision-makers can implement (i) stockpiles exhibiting higher inventory levels than recommended, and no delays concerning the operation within the warehouse or the delivery of the medical supplies. Furthermore, it is suggested to (ii) implement diverse supplier frameworks and crisis frameworks, (iii) diversify supplier, (iv) implement stocks of raw material for domestic production. It is useful for decision-makers to apply several responsive supply strategies simultaneously. Furthermore, health systems can further investigate additional supply strategies. In this research, it is assumed that collaboration is not relevant nor of interest for the English health system. Hence, it would be interesting to explore the effect that sharing critical medical supplies between national health systems could have on the shortage of PPE and ventilators in the future.

Mobile money has just started to emerge in Western countries; however Kenyans have already been using phones for transactions for 10 years mainly through the mobile money system MPesa. This hints towards a largely ignored innovation potential residing in developing countries that can even allow them to lead the path of innovation for specific sectors. To assess the potential for developing countries to become lead markets a framework was created based on the literature of lead markets and frugal innovation, a case study on MPesa and interviews on mobile money. The framework can be used for policy makers to assess whether their domestic market is suitable for the market introduction and further development of an innovation, thereby contributing to the effectiveness of innovation policy. The lead market potential of developing countries resides mainly in their capability of redefining the fulfilment of basic needs. This research can be further improved by studying the emergence of mobile money in developed countries and its effects on mobile money in Africa can provide insight into the sustainability of developing countries as lead market potential and whether they are truly global lead markets to further improve this research.

AkzoNobel wants to explore new business models to anticipate on the ever-changing market needs of customers by integrated digital service platforms in their business. AkzoNobel invested in a new Joint Venture business entity Zervices (ZRVCS) to develop a service platform for the Have It Done paint service. The first market entry selected by this concept was in Belgium, which has currently not reached the predicted business KPI’s. The order intake has not reached the break-even point yet. Many suggestions were given for this slow start, but a concrete problem identification lacks. This led to the following question: “How can we improve service platform business models to enter new markets in the have it done professional paint industry?” In order to identify the problem for the slow start in Belgium and to propose future strategies for ZRVCS, a theoretical framework was made based on business model innovation, important factors for developing competitive advantage and market entry methods. This was used to analyse three case studies with interviews: Uw Schilderwerk, ZRVCS Belgium and ZRVCS the Netherlands. The first case, was the proof of concept Uw Schilderwerk in the Netherlands, which had problems during the start-up period. By resetting the business from year one with a good internal organization, improved platform and financial resources they became the biggest painting company in the Netherlands. This shows that the three factors from the framework are important for their success. Building on this knowledge the case of ZRVCS Belgium was analysed. Different reasons were given during the interviews and the target group of ZRVCS Belgium and Uw Schilderwerk was compared. All these things showed that the business model missed all three factors from the framework, showing the problems of the market entry in Belgium. The last case was the entry in the Dutch market ZRVCS together with de Consumentenbond using a market penetration strategy. The Dutch market is considered an attractive market due to the success of Uw Schilderwerk. During this entry the important aspects for market entry were shown, such as the importance of an attractive market and good collaboration with partners, such as established brands, de Consumentenbond and Sikkens/AkzoNobel.

The environment that high-tech companies have to navigate is changing rapidly. To deal with these changes, managers have limited tools, of which many are based on predictive properties. However, as Black Swans and X-events illustrate, the future is inherently unpredictable. As the field of strategic management is primarily involved in dealing with the future, a new approach that does not rely on prediction could be of incredible value. Therefore, the concept of antifragility is introduced in this field as a new approach for management to decide on strategies. Antifragility is a concept that moves away from prediction. It does so by focusing on ways to deal with variation instead of merely aiming to prevent or predict it. It looks at what changes will do to an organisation and how to adapt a system so it can absorb or even benefit from this variation. Antifragility is a relatively new concept in the field of strategic management and therefore limited research has been conducted. The aim of this research is to analyse the concept through three aspects of antifragility: optionality, redundancy, and skin in the game. Strategies and practices that are related to these aspects are identified and analysed in order to get higher level insights in the mechanisms that increase antifragility through these concepts. The end results are several propositions capturing these mechanisms, which give insight in how companies and organisations can use antifragility to improve their strategic management. The research is exploratory as the field is relatively unknown and the existing research is not consistent of quality due to the lack of a theoretical framework. The main research question investigated in this thesis is the following: What underlying mechanisms drive antifragility in strategic management through the concepts of redundancy, optionality, and skin in the game? In order to be able to create propositions with validity in such a new field, the research consisted of three separate parts that delivered separate conclusions. This way, insights and higher-level mechanisms could be triangulated from these parts, creating valid and strong propositions. First a desk research was conducted through literature on antifragility from the fields of strategic management, urban planning, systems dynamics & engineering, and ICT. The literature was analysed to create conclusions on the strategies and practices for implementation of antifragility in strategic management. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview and consolidation in vocabulary on the subject of antifragility in strategic management was made. Second two case studies were executed, respectively about Haier and Zappos. Both companies are known for their innovative management structures and are well documented in scientific literature. This literature was analysed to highlight antifragile strategies and practices employed by the companies and general conclusions were created by comparing overlap between them. Finally, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with interviewees that employ antifragility or related concepts in their professional career. The results were analysed using a general inductive approach. The resulting categories were discussed. The conclusions of these three aspects combined created higher-level insights into the mechanisms behind optionality, redundancy, and skin in the game and how they contributed to an increase of antifragility for organisations. These insights were captured in several propositions. The resulting proposition highlighted that a greater focus on continuous experimentation, building redundancy and optionality through diversifying and a structure of decentralized decision making can increase the antifragility of a company. Furthermore, that implementing skin in the game from employees can be achieved through either conscious choice or an increase in employee engagement. The implications of the propositions cover many areas. For the scientific community an overview, consolidation of terminology, and an expansion towards other fields has been made for antifragility in strategic management. This opens up both many new research possibilities and a common ground to start from. For the TU Delft this new view on strategic management can add a new and contrasting view to the curriculum, highlighting biases and assumptions underlying many strategies and theories. For society, a focus on growing organisations in an antifragile manner can promote more adaptability and thus stable economic prosperity. For management, the implications can be far reaching. This research shows that although the quantitative evidence of the benefits that antifragility can bring are few, the concept holds promise of more control and success in strategic decision making. Using antifragility, they are better able to withstand variations, can benefit from it and it enables them to take an inwards look, focusing their efforts at what companies can influence, instead of trying to influence the un-influenceable. Adjusting to the propositions as stated requires a new view on almost every aspect of the modern company. However, for the concept to become more accepted and applied, future research is necessary, such as quantitative proof of effectivity of antifragility and a better understanding of the limitations of antifragility.

The research was conducted looking into the possibilities of local manufacturing and assembly of medical devices in low and middle-income countries. Desktop research and expert interviews were conducted to learn the operations of medical devices (and other product) manufacturers. The interview process validated the literature study and also brought to light some new information on how medical device manufacturing (both local and international) operates. The research resulted in key drivers and inhibitors that companies need to consider when shifting their operations (or not) to low and middle-income countries.

The environmental awareness in business practices has grown to be a central issue in corporate social responsibility for many multinational companies. Unfortunately, it remains a way of brand management for many companies, rather than a drive for structural change in business practices.Business models should therefore be reshaped, to deliver environmental sustainability based on the core logic of a firm. While previous studies are concerned with the typological and antecedent factor of start-ups’ environmental orientation, this study seeks to explore how start-ups incorporate their environmental orientation into their business model and (re)design their business model to respond to changing market demand for ecological sustainable solutions. An important distinction is made between sustainability practices that are innovating the business model as a whole (e.g. architectural innovations) and sustainability practices that are affecting single components of the business model (e.g. modular innovations). It is argued that environmental sustainability can position itself within the architecture of a business model, influencing all business decisions, or environmental sustainability can position itself outside of the business model, allowing for modular business model innovations. To explore the role of environmental sustainability for business model innovation of start-ups within Indonesia, a multiple case study design has been set up. Two startups that are in the process of designing their initial business model are selected, one company that has ecological sustainability embedded in the design of the product, and one that is focused on other, mainly economic brand related, values to remain competitive. Also two startups that have already commercialized their product and thus have an established business model are scrutinized. Again, one company that has ecological sustainability embedded in the design of the product, and one that is focused on other, mainly economic brand related, values to remain competitive. The research design allows for cross case comparison on the different axes whilst aggregated data may reveal more general approaches towards environmental sustainability. All four cases were found to consider the environment in their business model to a certain degree. Seven sustainability practices have emerged from the aggregated data and is linked to business model components. It was found that, however space for improvement, the cases on the sustainable value dimension did place environmental sustainability within the architecture of their business model, considering the environment from the core logic of their business and affecting to a certain extent the interdependencies of the subsystems. The cases on the economic, brand related dimension showed to position environmental sustainability outside of the architecture of their business, not regarding the natural environment as a stakeholder. Consequently, they merely allowed modular business model innovations regarding environmental sustainable practices. However progressive, the ecological orientation of the cases on the sustainable value dimension can be said to eco-open rather than eco-dedicated, whilst the ecological orientation of <Case 2> and <Case 4> are to be placed on the spectrum between eco-open and eco-reluctant.

Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) are aiming to shed light on the cost-benefit of climate mitigations. However, current IAMs are depicted with a wide range of weaknesses. Next, to questionable assumptions of model functions, such as the damage function, IAMs are inadequate at addressing deeply uncertain parameters, such as the equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). Various research has been conducted in addressing uncertainties by utilizing stochastic dynamic programming or approximate dynamic processing. However, two crucial aspects were not considered in these studies. First, most researchers utilized optimization to determine the optimal policy as their decision analytic method for the risk analysis. Yet optimal strategies are highly sensitive to uncertainties and thus, they lose their prescriptive value in a deeply uncertain environment like in the field of climate economics. Furthermore, most economists described the deep uncertainties of IAMs model by a normal distribution, at best by a lognormal distribution. However, Weitzman (2009) has shown in his Dismal Theorem, that deep “uncertainty in the form of fat tails is, at least in theory, capable of swamping the outcome of any CBA”. This research addresses both aspects by utilizing the Exploratory Modelling and Analysis (EMA) framework on the Dynamic Integrated Model of Climate and the Economy (DICE) of the Nobel prize winner Nordhaus. By translating the DICE model into a stochastic simulation model and conducting an EMA approach, this research demonstrates the importance of defining robust strategies against the disproportional risk in the fat-tails.

Twenty years ago, American-style shareholder capitalism, with its focus on maximising shareholders’ value (MSV), was widening its lead (in terms of economic growth) over European-style stakeholder capitalism. Nevertheless, the U.S. economy runs large trade deficits, inequality in income and wealth has risen, and there is a growing disappointment in the ability of American capitalism to deliver on its economic promise of prosperity. Evidence of superior long-run performance of enterprises operating in economies (such as Germany) where the MSV hypothesis is not the norm guiding corporate governance (but co-determination), suggests (at the minimum) that there are approaches to corporate governance which may be superior to MSV. In this thesis, the longer-run impacts of two alternative systems of corporate governance are explored with the aid of two business case studies—performed on General Motors (GM), from the U.S., and Volkswagen (VW), from Germany—with an aim to find the extent to which their diverse systems of corporate governance have contributed to (dis)investments in innovation. It has been found that, unlike the conditions at VW, the lack of a stable decision-making structure; inability to identify and confront competition; high profit-orientation, short-termism, yearly stock buybacks and regulations which permits it, and stock-based remuneration rationalised by the MSV hypothesis; flexible labour markets and downsizing; focus on the development of “general” skills; and aggressive debt financing, have shaped the corporate governance of GM and have affected its innovative capabilities. Moreover, VW—with its strong long-term competence development motive, technocratic managers, and better debt ratios—can be expected to identify and sustain its new (radical) innovation projects and if successful, can aid VW to emerge from any cost-disadvantage. GM can be expected to possess superior proprietary technologies and radical innovations or could be in a path of acquiring them. But, it is likely that with its current low cash margins and riskier credit-risk exposure—as a result of MSV perspective in corporate governance—GM may be placed at a cost disadvantage if the innovations fail or fail to appropriate gains.

Baumol's unbalanced growth model predicts the tendency of aggregate productivity growth to slow down in the process of tertiarisation. This thesis studies the relationship between employment structural changes and aggregate productivity growth in the case of China. William Nordhaus’s (2008) testing methodology will be applied to the China Industrial Productivity (CIP) Database that follows the KLEMS principles. The results suggest that there is a significant sign of Baumol’s cost disease in China during 1987-2010. Moreover, with more and more workers tolerating lower pay in the stagnant sectors, aggregate demand growth in the market will slow down. Eventually, the unbalanced growth may lead to economic stagnation. Hence, it is necessary to intervene in income distribution through fiscal and monetary policies to make the workers in the stagnant industries benefit from the technological progress.

Authors such as Clough (1955) and Rostow (1960) believed that countries endowed with natural resources could achieve sustainable economic growth. This belief was based on the role coal and oil had during the 19th and 20th century in the industrial development of countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States of America. However, this perspective started to change in the early 1980´s and has prevailed throughout the years, economists have observed that developing countries rich in non-renewable natural resources such as minerals and fossil fuels, have had a slower economic growth compared to developing resource-poor countries. The economist Auty (1993) denominated this phenomenon as a Natural Resource Curse, in which there is a negative correlation between natural resource dependence and economic growth. The South American country, Colombia, is the case study of the thesis in which an analysis is provided on how the growth and development of the extractive sector during the commodity price boom of the period 2004-2013 has affected the overall economy of the country. Additionally, the Colombian constitution states, the exploitation of a non-renewable natural resource will cause, in favour of the National Government, an economic consideration as a royalty (Const., 1991 Art. 360). Thus, for the present thesis, an emphasis is placed on the royalties the government received during the years 2012-2016 through the General Royalty System, (i) how these were used in the aspects of Science, Technology and Innovation, and Regional Development, (ii) to provide an understanding of to what extent these investments have contributed to regional growth, (iii) the correlation these investments have in a strategic economic sector such as the agroindustry.

This thesis examines the competitiveness of renewable energy technology compared to conventional power generation methods by examining the relative cost of solar PV, wind, and coal. The findings of this analysis seek to answer the primary hypothesis: The unique application of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), entailing the manipulation of CAPEX and CO2 variables, reveals the points in time and the exact LCOE values where it becomes cost competitiveness to switch from a coal asset to a renewable asset within the context of the German electricity market. The results illustrate that cost competitiveness between new renewables (solar PV, onshore wind, and offshore wind) and coal in the German electricity market does cross at certain points. The research seeks to determine the precise scenarios under which new renewable plants are more cost competitive than existing coal plants. The LCOE calculation has been chosen as the methodology to estimate the relative cost competitiveness of these differing power generation methods, under predefined scenarios for both CAPEX-reduction for renewables and CO2-price increase for coal. New assets are compared to existing assets; therefore, LCOE has been chosen in order to compare operational costs (OPEX) plus the capital cost (CAPEX) of new assets, with only the operational cost (OPEX) for existing assets. i.e. the investment cost for coal-fired assets is denoted as a sunk cost. This allowed for the development of a simplified framework to analyze an electricity-producing firm involved in an investment decision, whether a new solar or wind project or the continuation of an existing coal power plant...

In this thesis, the System Dynamics (SD) model of the Full Reserve Banking (FRB) system built by Van Egmond and De Vries (2016) has been reviewed and improved. The improved model is used to see the effect of FRB system in preventing a long-lasting recession as one occurred in 2008. FRB system is a monetary reform which attempts to separate private banks’ monetary and credit functions. Under FRB system, central bank creates money depending on the price level. Therefore, theoretically, FRB system can prevent recessions by maintaining the price level constant. Van Egmond and De Vries have modeled FRB system using System Dynamics (SD) modeling technique. However, their model has a few model problems which reduce reliability of the model; Ⅰ) the model crashes in different conditions, Ⅱ) the model is based on some assumptions that are less realistic or logical Ⅲ) the measurement units of the model are not specified. In this thesis the solutions for these model problems were sought through a model review and desk research. In the original model, high house prices and debt level are a direct and definite reason why the recession begins. Households default because house prices went up too fast and they could not afford the debt repayment. However, in the improved model, households default because their wages are stagnated. Households default when wages are stagnated while debt level grows high. In both original model and improved model, FRB system successfully protects the price and wage level. Under FRB system, the probability of recession decreases significantly. However FRB system is found to be not effective in stabilizing the price level when the firms’ dividend payout ratio is high. Furthermore, FRB system was not necessary as households do not default when the firms’ dividend payout ratio is low. The reason that FRB system’s effectiveness is decided by dividend payout ratio is because the model was calibrated originally with dividend payout ratio of 100% which is unrealistic in the real world. Therefore, the model is expected to be calibrated properly especially focusing on dividend payout ratio in a future work. Furthermore, it is recommended to include trades with other countries in the model in further work.

In 2008, the crash of the housing market bubble lead not only to the collapse of the U.S financial system, but also to a Global Financial Crisis. The Eurozone was hurt, and the impact was not uniform. The “sick periphery”, and in particular Greece, still suffer from the consequences of this crisis. After three adjustment programmes and €293 billion in financial assistance, Greece is weakened and left in stagnation. The country is aging, and if this reality does not change in the coming years, we will not be talking about a lost decade, but about a lost generation, and even worse, a lost nation. When we observe stagnation in economic growth, we should examine carefully the slowdown of TFP growth. Consequently, we investigate whether there was a long-run slowdown of TFP growth in the Greek economy and what are the other contributing factors that can explain this decline. On this basis, we will propose policies and strategies to the Greek government and private sector for a new and effective National Innovation System.

According to the Paris agreement in 2015, global warming should be limited by applying new innovative technologies in the industry in order to keep the global temperature 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Governmental organisations, institutes and manufacturing companies themselves are concerned about high emissions and all together are making efforts to find and apply more appropriate technologies to reduce GHG emissions. This research focuses on the chemical industry, from the perspective of the chemical industrial cluster, and presents a way to identify the most suitable technologies for decarbonisation. The concept of an industrial cluster has the view of interconnected companies located in industrial proximity and there is a perspective of cooperation in order to find a way to reduce emissions. This cooperation, however, creates complexity as the companies will have to cooperate on a financial, technical and social level. In order to study the topic, a specific case study was chosen to study, which is the Port of Moerdijk industrial cluster. Using publicly available data, three are chemical manufacturing companies and the one is a glass packaging manufacturing company, which is taken into account. The cluster analysis, results that companies are already strongly interlinked by exchanging material streams and utilities, which is an example of existing industrial symbiosis. The main raw material is naphtha, while energy is produced mainly by burning natural gas. This explains the high emissions of the cluster, around 2.8 Mt CO2/y, while the biggest emitter is the steam cracker unit (55% of the total emissions). Based on the cluster analysis, various options for decarbonisation are studied, such as alternatives for feedstock, energy carriers and the alternative processes itself. The proposed scenario for the cluster of Moerdijk is, investing in the partial substitution of fossil-based naphtha feedstock with 10% co-feed of bionaphtha and 10% co-feed of waste plastic oil. Implementation of the electrification of the steam cracker, the steam boilers and the glass production processes and finally, Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology is recommended. By implementing the recommended combination of decarbonisation options, it is estimated that by 2035 this will result in reduction of 45% of cluster emissions. After the proposal of the final scenario for the case study, an attempt is made to generalise this analysis, and thus a way towards a decision framework is presented. Essentially, a list of actions is presented, which someone could follow to find the appropriate solution for another chemical industrial cluster. In this framework, all the social, environmental, economic and technical sectors are taken into account. This leads to a rather complex topic that should be solved or at least simplified. This study can be used by decision makers of a chemical manufacturing company, which is a part of an industrial cluster, as a tool in order to follow the right steps to conclude the most suitable option for decarbonisation.  The advantage of studying this topic from an industrial cluster perspective is the decrease of individual investment costs by investing in a common solution with shared infrastructure.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) tend to focus upon short-term profit in a crisis period, however the EU advised SMEs’ to invest in innovation and quality of products. How SMEs balance between these two contradicting strategies is seldom addressed. Therefore, this study explores how SMEs align their organization upon short term exploitation of current products and explore long term product innovations simultaneously. The results of this multiple case study research identify Exploitative activities are supported by commonality among organizational goals and Exploration requires investment in knowledge sharing. A moderating effect upon exploitation and exploration, as identified in literature about Organizational Ambidexterity, is also identified among SMEs.