This thesis examines how the Dutch legislative and institutional framework determines the opportunities and limitations for non-pharmaceutical fulfilment providers in the B2C fulfilment of medicines. It explores the legal, organisational and market conditions that would allow a non-pharmaceutical company to offer an e-commerce fulfilment service that complies with Good Distribution Practice (GDP), with using PostNL Fulfilment as a case study. An exploratory mixed-methods research design is employed, combining literature and desk research on the Dutch pharmaceutical supply chain and legislative context, a stakeholder analysis, semi-structured interviews with pharmacists and other stakeholders, and the development of eight fulfilment scenarios. These scenarios are analysed using a framework of legal requirements and market-oriented design criteria. An actor-level implication analysis then assesses the institutional and administrative consequences.

The results show that pharmaceutical logistics in the Netherlands are regulated by a pharmacy-focused licensing system based on roles and locations, in which pharmacists remain responsible for dispensing medicines and ensuring patient safety. Non-pharmaceutical participation is therefore only possible through carefully regulated hybrid arrangements that ensure compliance with GDP, verifiable separation of responsibilities and robust contractual oversight. While none of the examined scenarios are explicitly on legal basis, the feasibility decreases as the executing party's role becomes more similar to that of a full logistics back office, comparable to the operational structure typically observed in conventional non-pharmaceutical fulfilment services. This is due to interpretative grey areas at the interface between dispensing and logistics, as well as the centralisation of multiple pharmacies and the associated distribution of roles and medication flows. Market feasibility is greatest in predictable segments with large volumes (e.g. repeat prescriptions), although it remains structurally constrained by the highly regulated nature of the pharmaceutical supply chain, which is characterised by a limited number of dominant actors who largely shape market access and operational conditions. In general, scalable implementation requires step-by-step expansion and clarification of regulations/legislation and governance designs that can be monitored and audited.
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Earth’s orbits are becoming increasingly congested, which makes the orbital environment more fragile and harder to use safely. One of the most damaging single events is a destructive anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test that creates long-lived debris, as these fragments threaten civil, commercial, and military space services and raise collision risks. Despite the shared danger, current international law does not explicitly ban debris-creating ASAT tests and existing accountability mechanisms remain weak. At the same time, diplomatic forums are divided between states favouring voluntary behavioural norms and states advocating a new legally binding instrument, which slows collective action and sustains political gridlock. This raises the question of how a practical and verifiable governance solution can be designed to reduce and ultimately prevent debris-creating ASAT testing under today’s geopolitical constraints, and which institutional design options the Netherlands can realistically support to improve debris prevention and accountability. This thesis treats the technical risks, legal gaps, and political barriers as a systems and institutional design challenge. Using Ostrom’s ADICO grammar, it specifies institutional rules through three core elements: agreement scope, verification, and consequences, then evaluates designs against three goals: debris prevention, accountability, and political feasibility. The design space is built from four inputs: lessons from comparative regimes (the Antarctic Treaty for transparency and a living forum, Maritime Law for precise zonal rules and dispute settlement logic, and the Nuclear Weapons Treaty for norm-building and stigmatisation), expert interviews on what is acceptable in current diplomacy and the potential role of The Hague, verification lessons from the UNIDIR handbook and the Netherlands Space Office verification study, and effect-based, technology-neutral rule reasoning focused on observable outcomes. Screening these ideas yields three contrasting scenarios: Design 1, a direct-ascent debris ban in low Earth orbit verified through national technical means and SSA with public attribution as the main consequence; Design 2, an all-kinetic debris ban across all orbits verified through a multilateral data-sharing cell with stronger collective “naming and shaming”; and Design 3, a technology-neutral ban on deliberate debris creation across all orbits verified by an independent technical body with stronger consequences such as suspension of regime benefits and privileges. The evaluation shows a clear trade-off between political feasibility and accountability, and recommends starting with Design 1 as a realistic first step that can open a pathway towards stronger, more comprehensive governance over time. The thesis also identifies concrete Dutch contributions to enable this pathway, including reframing the issue as space safety and sustainability, using middle-power diplomacy to build cross-regional coalitions (including Global South partners), promoting The Hague as an optional venue for arbitration and peaceful dispute settlement, and strengthening technical credibility through support for SSA/SST expertise and transparent verification practices. ... Read more

DSOs are of vital importance for the resilience and adaptivity of the essential energy grids with continuously growing demand and consistently increasing complexity. Additionally, a substantial amount of energy technologies that are needed for the transition are still in the demonstration or prototype phase. The increasing pressure on DSOs to adapt to a plethora of fundamental challenges necessitates innovative frameworks to support sustainable development. This study set out to develop a new framework for guiding DSO innovation efforts with three key objectives: take into account the system context, provide tangible and actionable output and consider the regulatory environment. The framework was abductively constructed through a synthesis of five established innovation models and refined using expert interviews and case studies. The resulting diagnostic framework distinguishes three parallel levels for innovation: the project level, company level and ecosystem level. Each with their own respective more detailed factors. Another contribution of this research is the introduction of strategic alignment as a systemic factor in innovation in the literature. This research represents the first exploration of an innovation framework that holistically addresses the unique complexities and demands of DSOs, offering a foundation for further refinement and application. ... Read more

The Affordable Rent Act (Wet Betaalbare Huur), enacted on July 1, 2024, establishes regulations on rent control in the mid-market rental sector. This is accomplished by establishing maximum rents in the mid-market rental sector based on the quality of housing, as determined by the WWS points system. The study critically examines the impact of this legislation on the governance of housing associations in the West-Brabant and Tholen regions through a combination of literature review and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders.

The findings are threefold: First, the Act has a limited direct impact on housing associations, as their rents typically fall below the new limits. Second, the enforcement of the WWS points system introduces significant administrative challenges for housing associations. Third, the anticipated exit of investors from the mid-market sector may increase demand for social housing, thereby placing additional pressure on housing associations.

This study addresses a gap in the existing literature by focusing on the effects of the Affordable Rent Act on housing associations, as previous research has primarily concentrated on investors. The study concludes with policy recommendations, including the establishment of a central housing agency, the creation of a mid-market rental fund, and a continued focus on social housing by housing associations. The recommendations are designed to assist housing associations in navigating the dynamic housing market.
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Sustainability is increasingly important for homebuyers due to environmental awareness, legislation, and financial benefits like reduced energy costs and higher mortgage potential for energy-efficient properties. However, evaluating a home's sustainability is challenging as properties may be misrepresented by the seller. Further on, the bounded rationality of homebuyers can also affect property assessment. This thesis explores the legal obligations applicable to homebuyers in assessing sustainability before purchase, explores current market practices for assessing sustainability, and explores professional property evaluation. Thereby, this thesis aims to use insights retrieved from professional investors to guide homebuyers in making informed decisions on sustainability when buying a residence.

A mixed-methods approach, including a legal review, interviews with professional investors, and a survey among homeowners, was used. The legal review indicates that buyers must conduct thorough property investigations. Energy labels provide information but do not guarantee specific features and should be compared with the true state of the property and seller information. Annulment of a purchase based solely on an energy label is difficult without false disclosures.

Interviews reveal that unsustainable properties are losing value, partly due to legislation limiting the lease of such assets to tenants. Professional investors use various methods to assess sustainability, such as comparing assets with reference objects, seeking external advisory, assessing development potential, examining energy consumption data, evaluating climate risks, understanding energy labels, considering certifications like BREEAM, assessing embodied carbon, and evaluating asset installations and insulation.

The survey shows that sustainability is increasingly important to homeowners, primarily to reduce energy costs. Respondents are willing to pay more for higher energy labels but often fail to thoroughly investigate property sustainability, highlighting this study's relevance. Greenwashing was not a significant issue among respondents.

This study supports previous research on the importance of sustainability and the need for thorough property investigations. Limitations include the difficulty of generalizing legal rulings, the small survey sample, and potential interviewer bias. Evolving legislation, fluctuating energy prices, and the volatile housing market may quickly render results outdated.

Homebuyers are advised to consider the energy label, check its assessment date, and conduct additional research before purchasing. Homebuyers are advised to request previous energy consumption data and consider risks related to heat, flooding, and foundation damage. External advice is recommended, especially for homes built before the 2012 Building Decree. The state of installations can be assessed with further external certification. While solar panels can improve an energy label, proper insulation is more crucial. Limiting energy demand should be prioritized before focusing on green energy generation.
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The revision of the eIDAS Regulation proposes the implementation of a European digital identity wallet for citizens to authenticate themselves across the EU. The process to decide if a person already has an account at the service where they seek to authenticate themselves is called identity matching. Regulated and public Dutch Relying Parties and the Dutch government are not always able to assess whether a citizen authenticating themselves has a pre-existing record at the Relying Party or in the Dutch national registry. Moreover, the current dependency on the Dutch central identity matching service creates a Single Point of Failure. Besides these reliability problems, privacy issues such as profiling data minimization must be accounted for. To this end, this research proposes three possible solution directions for solving these problems: a government-centric, wallet provider-centric, and a hybrid solution direction. The design of the solution directions follows a design science research methodology. The possible solution directions are evaluated by experts in focus groups to elicit the benefits and the barriers which these experts identify as relevant factors for accepting a solution direction. These factors are categorized using the TOE model, which is adapted to suit the current context. Expert evaluations during the focus groups have resulted in factors which relate to the organizational, technological, and external environment of the solution directions. The evaluation uncovered tradeoffs which the Dutch Ministry of the Interior must make to choose between one of the proposed solution directions: reuse of infrastructure at the cost of citizen privacy, or more privacy for citizens at the cost of additional logic requirements needed for the identity wallet. Based on the privacy and reliability requirements and the objective of the Dutch government to give citizens more control over their personal data, the wallet provider-centric solution direction is the most fitting choice of the three proposed solution directions. The explication of the problem, requirements, and solution directions can be used as a starting point in the exploration of new solution directions for the identity matching problems. More research is needed on other possible solution directions than are proposed in this research and their viability to meet the objectives of the Dutch government and deadlines set by the European Commission. ... Read more

With the current urgency to become more circular, procurement presents the primary method to deliver the circular policy ambition by purchasing circular products and stimulating circularity in the market. In the building and infrastructure sector, civil engineering projects offer unique opportunities for circularity. This research presents an assessment of the implementation fidelity of the circular ambition within the tendering process. It examines for each of the methods that define the tendering process, the tendered project, and the awarding framework whether the way circularity is being implemented delivers the ambition as expected.
Along with the four research phases, the research devises and uses a framework to assess the fidelity of circularity implementation through the methods to include it in the tendering of civil engineering works. The implementation fidelity framework is used to; create a holistic analysis that captures the many facets impacting the tendering process; determine areas of issues and, consequently, room for improvements; and differentiate between the methods to include the circular ambition in the process. Through three study cases, the construct of the analysis managed to capture the data between quantitative and qualitative in a consistent and interpretable manner. It creates a consistent link between the fidelity dimensions, the corresponding issue areas, and the methods to include circularity in the tendering process.
The room for improvement follows the three moderating dimensions, exposure, quality of delivery, and participation. The research links the issues impacting the fidelity of circular ambition implementation in three categories: structural issues, implementation traps, and policy-related, to the three moderating dimensions. The research acknowledges that policy-related issues impact at a sector level as issues inherent to the policy itself. Nonetheless, the research finds that, on an organizational level, removing structural issues and implementation traps raises overall fidelity and reduces the effect of policy-related issues. Increasing this fidelity reflects on the efficacy of the methods to include circularity in tendering, individually and as a group of instruments intended to complement each other.
In conclusion, the research recommends practical use of the implementation fidelity framework, which would feed into the body of expertise within an organization to improve future tendering processes to include, enable, and produce more circular solutions with more efficacy in the use of the methods. It will also allow aligning perceptions of the contractors and the contracting authority on one hand and the policymakers and policy implementers on the other hand. For future research, examining all five implementation fidelity dimensions for the instruments and processes at the different levels throughout the procurement cycle is most compatible with the circular ambition in the building and infrastructure sector. This could be most beneficial to establish a more vital link between policymakers and policy implementers. Moreover, it would support future efforts to update the circular ambition goals and milestones by presenting a more encompassing image of the policy implementation fidelity in real-world settings. ... Read more

Circular Economy (CE) is proposed as an solution to the problems the world is facing concerning global warming and resource scarcity. The construction industry however struggles with the new concept of CE. Practitioners lack knowledge, experience and examples. Therefore, embedding circularity in the contract may work as a stimulation. The purpose of this research is to determine a list of requirements on how the client can embed circularity in official documents of infrastructural commissions in an integrated contract in such a way that the contractor can understand, relate and implement the concept in the commission. The results of the research should answer the main research question: What requirements, according to the contractor, do clients of infrastructural projects have to uphold in embedding circularity in the official documents of their commission to stimulate the contractor in implementing circularity in the project? The intention of this research is to form consensus amongst contractors concerning which re¬quirements are necessary for the client to uphold and include in the contract in order to stimulate the contractor in implementing circularity in the project to its fullest potential. To reach consensus, the Delphi-method is applied, which consists of three rounds in this research. The first round is the scoping round in which semi-structured interviews were held with contrac¬tors and clients. From the first round, six themes in which participants encounter struggles with CE were identi¬fied. The second round was a questionnaire in which contractors are asked to judge statements, which were drafted based on six themes from round one. General statements were used as a validation for the six themes identified, example statements were used to determine how currently embedded circularity is perceived by contractors and which improvements have to be made. Moreover, contractors were asked to pro¬vide arguments that support their judgement. Statements on which no consensus have been reached were questioned again in round three. Along with the statements, the arguments given by contractors in round two were provided as well. These arguments enabled respondents to revise their judgement, which is necessary to reach consensus on more statements. The Delphi-method ended with round 3. From the 29 statements, 23 have reached consensus after the third round of the Delphi method; 6 statements did not reach consensus. From the arguments given, combined with the results of the questionnaire, it became clear that in general, clients need to adhere more to the tender-requirements stated by the European law. Concerning the answer to the main research question it becomes evident that clients need to be clear about the by them used definition of the concept of CE. Moreover, direction and scope is appreciated. Award criterion are better for stimulation and a more objective measuring method is necessary. Collaboration is necessary for finding the best solution possible. ... Read more

This research aims to gain a deeper understanding on the financial, legal, organisational and technical considerations regarding the application of product-service systems. The goal is to identify how these characteristics could be implemented in project delivery methods to contribute to a circular economy. This design-based research is carried out from the perspective of the contractor by participation in a development program to find out how infrastructure could be delivered as a service. Additionally, insights from the perspective of the client and supplier are gathered by semi-structured interviews. Literature study has shown that the more a product is delivered as a service, the more it fits with the principles of a circular economy. In the analysis, it became clear that for the application of product-service system (PSS) in infrastructure projects five conditional state-of- affairs should be fulfilled. In addition, throughout the project lifecycle, some required changes are identified as being important. To develop a project delivery method suited to circular economy and incorporating PSS characteristics it is identified that certain steps should be taken. Therefore, an agenda for change is developed to clarify what steps need to be taken to make the transition to application of PSS characteristics in the infrastructure sector. During the research, a model has been created based on the application of PSS characteristics during the different stages of a project. The outcome of this model leads to the most optimal situation in relation to circular economy for application to the infrastructure sector. The model indicates that the identified prerequisite changes need to take place up front and during the lifecycle of the infrastructure project to transform towards a service-oriented project delivery that complies with the principles of circular economy. Most important change in relation to the existing project delivery methods is the inclusion of the end-of life phase, which should be standard incorporated in project delivery of infrastructure projects to support the closing of the material cycle. Additionally, it turns out that it is important that power (knowledge and resources) and responsibilities are allocated to the service provider to create an economic incentive to preserve the quality and value of the product throughout the contract period. In this research it turns out the most service-oriented category of PSS is currently not possible to achieve in the infrastructure sector due to the current organisation of the Dutch infrastructure sector. However, incorporating PSS characteristics on a project level could support the infrastructure sector in the transition towards a circular economy.
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