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.

This thesis researched the possible use of agile project management for infrastructure project through the use of a serious research game. The thesis showed that there are different serious games and created a serious research game. By playing the serious research game with agile and traditional project management experts a hypothesis was created to use agile project management in the realisation of infrastructure projects. It showed that by using agile thinking at the start of project conception stakeholders are more seen as design experts. By using a minimal viable design and frequent collaboration and communication with the stakeholders a design is made through iterations. This design is than build.

Construction projects are filled with uncertainty. Such projects are becoming more complex: Many different interrelated aspects that are subject to change play a role in the delivery of construction work. This makes it interesting to know what exactly is uncertain in these projects, and what can be done to manage uncertainty. The aim of this research is to explore what aspects of complex construction projects are uncertain and what project management teams of public clients do to manage uncertainty before it impacts projects. Four complex construction projects were studied at two large public clients in the Netherlands: Rijksvastgoedbedrijf and Rijkswaterstaat. A total of 17 interviews were carried out across the project teams of these cases. A literature study was conducted to provide a theoretical basis of uncertainty in complex projects and approaches for the management of uncertainty. Uncertainty can be present in eight aspects: Objectives, methods, market, resources, stakeholders, contract, technology and environment. And managing uncertainty can be done in three ways: Learning, representing complexity and selectionism. The results show a variety of uncertainties present in those projects: all eight aspects were found to involve uncertainty in the cases. What especially appears as a challenge is the state of objects in renovation projects. This was a significant uncertainty that played a role in three renovation cases. Interestingly, project teams know before the start of the project that this is an uncertainty, but still face surprises during the execution phase. In addition, objectives, stakeholders and environment were uncertain in most of the cases. Given this broad spectrum of uncertainties, what do project teams do to prepare for this? Public clients mainly use approaches that represent the complexity of the project. They do this mainly by using organizational structures that focus on collaboration and integration. Organizational structures are utilized to facilitate joint risk management between the contractor and the public client. In addition, other approaches are used to represent complexity. Uncertainties are identified and discussed in a project development process to develop new project-specific knowledge. Decision-makers are often involved to increase the decision power of the project team or to escalate matters that are beyond influence of the project team. And lastly, project teams often focus on financial reserves and creating cohesion between project parties to prepare for unforeseen situations. learning is the second most used approach to prepare for uncertainty. It is mainly used in the renovation projects that were studied, where experiments at the site, use of mockups off site and pilots are introduced to learn about the interaction between the construction method, the object and the environment. The findings show that public clients manage a variety of uncertainties through the representation of complexity in the project organization and by learning. Selectionism was not used in the cases, and it is not clear to which extent selectionism is viable in complex construction projects. Based on the literature, it is recommendable for public clients to use integrated project teams to manage complex construction projects.

The increased complexity and changes in collaboration between involved actors in the realization of large infrastructure projects (LIP’s) cause major challenges. One of these challenges entails meeting stakeholders’ requirements through verification and validation (V&V) during the design phase. Coordinating the design with the stakeholders can easily lead to delays or bad relationships. The V&V process originates from systems engineering (SE) and it seems that an attempt is being made to reduce the complexity by performing the V&V process in a systematic way. However, various researchers indicate that there is a need for interaction and it is doubted if this need for interaction is taken into account in this SE approach. The V&V process half-heartedly relates to stakeholder management (SM) while they seem to be a good fit. It is expected that a successful performance of SM can fill this need for interaction in the complex environment of LIP’s. Therefore, this research sought an answer to the question: How can stakeholder management help to improve the verification and validation of the stakeholders’ requirements during the design phase of large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands? Through a literature study into SM, an evaluation tool is formulated consisting of four core values. These values are: setting goals together, assessing stakeholders, involving stakeholders in the decision-making, and continuously interacting with stakeholders. A case-study approach is used to allow a deeper understanding of the application of SM in relation to the V&V process during the design phase in practice. Through semi-structured interviews, based on the evaluation tool, the perspectives of contractors, clients, and stakeholders on SM in relation to the V&V process were investigated. Conclusively, the findings from the three cases were compared based on different themes to gain an understanding of the role SM plays in relation to the V&V process. Setting goals together, appears to be truly important in relation to the V&V process. Respondents believe that by setting goals together, parties involved become more aware of the underlying interests and concerns behind the requirements of the project and thus get a better picture of the purpose of the requirements. Consequently, it brings parties closer together from the start. Furthermore, continuously interacting with stakeholders during the process in an open way is important as this creates support among stakeholders. Through this, the contractor must discuss the progress of the design by reflecting on the overall picture and not only on the problems that arise. The stakeholders, but the client as well, find it very meaningful to be thoroughly informed about the reasoning behind the design choices of the contractor. This applies to involving stakeholders in the decision-making as well. The current way in which the stakeholders and the client actually participate in making decisions seems sufficient on condition that stakeholders and client are sufficiently informed about the motives of the contractor. In the context of the studied cases, assessing stakeholders does not appear to be important in the V&V process of the design phase. This research has not identified a clear correlation between the performance of the V&V process and a contractor or a client who is carrying out the SM related to the V&V process, the degree of collaboration seems much more important. Both the contractor and the client have substantial resources that are required to coordinate the design with the stakeholders and they have a common interest in monitoring the contract. Therefore, it is the interest of both of them to enter into good collaboration in managing the stakeholders in relation to the V&V process. The ambiguity of the V&V process is recognized in practice as well, where the contractor and client struggle to find a more SE-driven approach or a more SM-driven approach. The context in which the process takes place determines which approach is more effective. There are several directions for further research. First of all, this research uses an evaluation tool based on research into SM focusing on LIP’s in general. Therefore, this research can be seen as an exploratory study into SM specifically aimed at the V&V process. It is recommended to conduct follow-up research into further testing and specifying the evaluation tool. Furthermore, this research shows that there is a tension in the V&V process regarding monitoring the contract. Further research into contract management in relation to the V&V process is recommended as well. Based on the evaluation tool, this research has made recommendations for determining an SM strategy in relation to the V&V process. Since every V&V process takes place in a different context, no unambiguous advice can be given. However, this research has shown that setting goals together and continuously interacting with stakeholders are both very important for the performance of the V&V process, regardless of the conditions of the process.

The process of execution of construction projects is subjected to multiple complexities which are highly dynamic in nature. Among several complex dynamic elements present in a project, the scope is one of the elements which is extremely important. The scope is adjusted multiple times during the definition and execution phases to add or remove a feature which is known as scope change. Whereas, there exists a situation where the scope of the project grows organically, uncontrollably and unexpectedly out of the desired scope during the conception, definition and execution phases which is known as scope creep. The scope creep activities find sources from multiple factors such as flaws in contract, poor scope management process, poor communication and so on. From the identified sources of scope creep Agile Scrum-ban and BIM 5D integrated scope management model for high budget projects and cost conscious solutions such as assigning case manager, including scope creep as risk in WBS etc. for low budget projects are proposed as a suitable recommendations to address scope creep in onshore wind farm projects and thereby improve the project delivery.

Since the introduction of Best Price Quality Ratio (BPQR) tendering, specific (non-financial) tender elements in the bid can also be decisive for winning the tender. These so-called qualitative aspects are therefore important means in the tender to distinguish a bid from competing bids. Although competition is believed to enhance a fair quality price ratio in the tender phase, this study points out that safeguarding the competition principle throughout the execution phase is not guaranteed. It turns out, added value of a measure in the execution phase, does not always coincide with the promised value in the bid (=misalignment). The objective of this research was to determine to what extent distinctive tender elements are aligned with added value during or after project execution for projects procured with the BPQR tender procedure. Besides, the aim was to define what underlying mechanisms in the BPQR tender process are causing eventual (mis)alignment. In this regard, the following research question has been drawn: What underlying mechanisms cause (mis)alignment between distinctive BPQR tender elements and the actual added value during or after project execution? Three research phases are being distinguished in this investigation: the exploration, the analysis (consisting of phase A and phase B) and lastly the synthesis. The exploration phase involved a literature study in which the aim was to gain full understanding of the theoretical aspects surrounding the topic of research. It was found that misalignment is mainly perceived as both disadvantageous for the client as well as for the losing bidders. As a result, the current focus is on alignment between tender and practice. This explains initiatives like SMART formulation of measures and the introduction of fines for non-fulfilment. Even new ‘out of the box’ ideas emerge like involving the losing bidders of the tender in auditing the execution of the project . All these approaches aim at maximising alignment, assuming misalignment would be disadvantageous for the client. The first phase of the analysis involved the analysis of the BAM Infra tender results. This analysis is used to create a general image of the tenders on which BAM Infra did perform outstanding and thus was able to distinguish itself. Furthermore, this analysis enables a proper selection of the tenders to conduct the case study research. The second phase of the analysis therefore explores the impact of quality aspects, bothin the tendering as well as in the execution phase of a project. This second phase involves a case study on four strategically selected projects regarding the distinctive character of the tender bid for each project. Subsequently, the study assesses how these elements turn out in practice, by conducting interviews with both the client and the contractor. The first finding is that measures can be divided in four quadrants: 1. Measure not implemented; effect not achieved (Q1) 2. Measure not implemented; effect nonetheless achieved (Q2) 3. Measure implemented; effect not achieved (Q3) 4. Measure implemented; effect achieved (Q4) Only measures in the fourth quadrant are examples of alignment, since in those examples both the implementation and the effect are aligned with the original promise formulated in the bid. Literature refers to, among other causes, strategic behaviour of contractors (adverse selection, moral hazard and strategic misrepresentation) as the cause of misalignment between tender and practice. The researcher did however identify four main causes for misalignment: Change of situation (A), enhanced / new insights (B), strategic behaviour (C) and bad luck (D). Subsequently, the total set of measures determining the distinctive character of the bid has been analysed. Resulting from this analysis, the researcher composed a categorization and a list of characteristics that measures can have. The categorization is both Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhausting (MECE) and it involves a distinction between process vs. product measures and temporary vs.permanent measures. Furthermore, the researcher did formulate seven characteristics. These characteristics are not MECE, which implies one measure can have multiple characteristics and the list might not necessarily be limited to the seven characteristics listed below. Ø Integral measures Ø Performance measures Ø Technical specification Ø Sexy measures Ø Beads (Dutch: Spiegels en kraaltjes) Ø Commercial-off-the-shelf measures Ø Multi-applicable measures Thereafter, the measures are mapped in the quadrants and subsequently analysed on commonalities. It was found that although their abundance in the set of most distinctive measures is roughly equal, product measures are more frequently implemented and more often achieve the intended effect than process measures. Furthermore, it turned out that measures that are not implemented whilst the effect is achieved, are always process measures. However, most process measures involved concerned situations in which the added value was absent. Besides, temporary measures are most coincide with process measures and, hence, score for the majority similar with these process measures (measures not implemented prevail). Temporary measures are less often implemented than permanent ones. Also, performance measures seemed to be the perfect measures in order to achieve alignment. Nevertheless, the room for distinguishing on this type of measures is questionable. But since the promised effect is very likely to be achieved by these measures, criteria of high importance of the clients could best be formulated as a performance measure. Commercial-off-the-shelf measures are preferred by contractors since they are easy to implement and are proven concepts. Yet, the clients state that these measures do not add value, since they would also have been conducted anyway. Sexy measures come with a large reputational risk for the client. This also relates to the responsibility public authorities have: generating public value. If public expenditures do not generate the value expected; public authorities will encounter social discontent. Based on the findings of this research, the following conclusions are drawn that answer the main research question: What underlying mechanisms cause (mis)alignment between distinctive BPQR tender elements and the actual added value during or after project execution? This research pointed out several causes for misalignment, of which strategic behaviour is one category. Strategic behaviour does however not dominate. It was however found that presumably, changes of circumstances are stimulating strategic behaviour of contractors. Issues underlying causes of misalignment are amongst others: multi-headedness of both the client as well as the contractor; lack of full-openness (of both parties) during the competitive dialogue and the use of inappropriate criteria to mitigate future maintenance costs in a construction contract. This results in misunderstanding, or a lack of (correct) information. In this respect it was learned that higher similarity in team composition (i.e.linking pin principle) between tendering and execution phase, can avoid loss of background information on important measures in a project. The research did also reveal that alignment is no holy grail. The focus on alignment not always generates value. Of the identified causes for misalignment, several cases are found in which fulfilment of the measure appeared to be disadvantageous for the client (!). This is especially the case when new insights occur and unforeseen added value appears. Yet, this study reveals that in those cases the specific measure involved often is not implemented. So, client satisfaction can also be achieved in case of misalignment. Although important, alignment is no cure for contractual discussions. A rigid focus on alignment may even have a negative impact on the provided added value for the client (and thus a negative impact on public value). Discussions whether measures are righteously implemented or not, consume time. And time – delay – means money. Given the fact that most clients are public bodies, this would involve loss of taxpayer’s money. In addition, rigid focus on alignment will put strain on the element of trust in the relationship between contractor and client, bringing the positive outcome of other future discussions in jeopardy. This reflection implicitly emphasises that a more externally focused value approach may have its advantages. Initiatives such as mixed client-contractor construction teams (Dutch: Bouw teams), that have an entirely different approach of project definition before the tendering phase, anticipate on that. In other words: currently the aim is to maximise internally focused value (=alignment of tender and practice) but in the end the evolving relevant issues all seem to indicate more externally focused value generating approaches in the future.

Cost estimation of construction projects is still carried out using highly manual traditional tools and processes, which are deemed as inefficient and have a direct impact in the productivity levels of the industry. Building Information Modelling or BIM is changing the way projects are developed and has introduced some changes to cost estimation. One of these changes is the possibility to generate semi-automatic quantity take-offs from BIM models, greatly speeding up the project quantification process. Furthermore, the concept of 5D BIM, or BIM with the addition of a cost “dimension”, aims to connect BIM and cost estimation. However, the participation of the cost engineer in BIM-based processes is still limited, and this actor frequently only appears at the end, to deliver single cost estimates. This study aims to observe and identify the possibilities of integrating cost engineers in BIM-based project development as a step towards reaching 5D BIM. The research is carried from a managerial and organizational perspective. The potential outcomes of the integration impact the process of cost estimation and other associated processes, namely project design and modelling, and project management and development. To conduct this study, a case study was carried out at a Dutch engineering company where interviews were carried out to respondents of different specialties. Activity theory was used as a theoretical framework for the analysis, discussion and development of a solution. Its use marks an interesting approach to the current problem as it provides the ground for simultaneous analysis of multiple activity systems to reach an integrative solution. The results support other studies that conclude cost engineers are detached from BIM-based project development. Furthermore, the results show that the integration of cost engineers in BIM-based project development has mainly positive potential outcomes for cost estimation and associated processes. It is, however, also concluded that at its current state BIM instruments alone are not fit to handle all information relevant to cost estimation, namely non-graphical elements. The research concludes that to achieve positive results from integration of cost engineers, it is required, a) 5D BIM specialized software, b) appropriate integration of actors in project development, and c) adoption of standards, mainly for development and use of three key tasks. The final deliverable of the research is a collaborative framework which is intended to provide the ground for the integration of cost engineers in BIM-based project development, aimed at reaching 5D BIM.

Bouwteam is a collaboration agreement in which the contracor is involved early on to work together with the client to make a design in which the knowledge of the client and the contractor is used optimally. Through the years the Bouwteam has been influenced by integrated contracts and has been changing in a variety of ways. Nowadays, there is not one standard way of using a Bouwteam anymore. In the last decade the Bouwteam has increased in popularity and is being used more and more. The Bouwteam is praised for its benefits regarding collaboration and the integrations of the design and constuction, stemming from the early involvement of the contractor. However, practice at Antea Group shows that reaching the benefits of a Bouwteam is not as easy as one would believe. Signing a Bouwteam agreement does not automatically lead to good collaboration or to project succes. More is needed, but what? This study will examine the question: How can the benefits of the Bouwteam be achieved in construction projects?

The research explores ways to improve productivity in turnaround/shutdown projects from a contractor perspective.

Authors associate the PMO with an increase in the success rate of projects, reduce overall costs, and delivery time. Which explains why firms replicate and modify it while adopting project-based structures and strategies. PMOs in different organizations hold little similarities with each other. Staffing the PMO is an overhead cost to projects, and seeking to optimize resources organizations tend to allocate more functions to them. As a result, there is a broad range of activities a PMO can perform. This study found in literature 36 different functions associated with this structure. Agile and traditional project management methodologies have fundamental differences in both planning and operational organization. Agile argues that overhead costs, requirements elicitation, and planning processes result in overspending and delaying innovative product development. These differences conflict with previously established roles, functions, and, more problematically, the people that perform them. In this sense, the introduction of agile ways of working is a disruption of traditional practices in the organization. The change to agile methods has effects of various aspects of a firm’s organizational structure, including the PMO, a symbolic figure from traditional project management. Agile standards have different approaches to the use of a PMO, and it is not clear whether the PMO in agile has similar roles and responsibilities as the PMO in traditional methodologies. This study proposes to investigate the impact of the transition from traditional project management to agile on the PMO to address this gap. The main research question makes it explicit: “How do the roles of Project/Program/Portfolio Management Offices change with the introduction of Agile methodologies to a large number of teams?” This study adopted a descriptive exploratory approach to answering this question. The study observed the changes in the roles of the PMO before and after implementations of agile with four case studies. The research conducted semi-structured interviews and applied surveys with nine professionals in these different companies. The contribution to science of this study is twofold. First, it contributes to the description of the PMO, enriching the field towards a unified theory of project management. Second, it provides empirical evidence for the changes in roles of the PMO with the introduction of agile. This study found that there are wide disparities between the roles of the PMOs in different organizations. It also found that PMO performs different functions before and after the introduction of agile methods in a firm. It seems to be consistent that the PMOs are involved in the activities of monitoring, controlling, and standardizing project methodologies in both periods. A common theme across the participants' reports is that the PMOs participation got diminished or repurposed to a supporting and serving role with the introduction of agile. An explanation for this change is the shared responsibility the PMOs have with the agile teams on processes they were the sole or main responsible in traditional settings. Another common theme is the interfacing part the PMO plays, bridging traditional sectors and agile sectors of the firm. Participants in all firms believe the current state of the PMO is not final and expect it to continue to change. Disclaimer: This research was supported by Accenture B.V.

Previous research assessing public organisations in the delivery of infrastructure projects mainly focuses on public project delivery organisations and their interaction with private parties. However, many challenges experienced by these project delivery organisations relate to the interaction with the public parent organisation. In practice, this interface mainly materialises as the interaction between the internal commissioner (Dutch: ambtelijk intern opdrachtgever) and the project manager. Internal commissioners are appointed to control whether project organisations adhere to the project assignment. Due to dynamic complexity emerging in infrastructure projects, causing deviations from the defined project assignment, more commitment of these commissioners to projects is needed by these public managers during project realisation. By qualitative research in diverse Dutch public sector organisations, more insight into the internal commissioning role during project realisation is created. The research suggests several ways of improving the efficiency of internal working procedures in public parent organisations. Furthermore, the research identified management recommendations for improving professionalism in the internal commissioning role during project realisation.

Interface management (IM) is an emerging construction management practice that is mainly concerned with the integration effort of (mega)projects through the management of project interfaces. Even though a plethora of benefits is attributed to IM, a clear overview of how to effectively manage interfaces is non-existent. Without a general understanding on what IM entails, false expectations about its use are created. At the same time, IM developments from academic research are facing obstacles in their adoption in practice, for practitioners are often not represented in these developments. The absence of situated knowledge (i.e. knowledge found and created in practice) in IM development is problematic, for a profession, or professionalism in general, builds on a body of knowledge comprised of integrated knowledge from theory and practice. For this reason, this research has attempted to take a step in the professionalisation of IM by converging the knowledge from theory and practice. That is, enriching the professional content by creating uniformity on the concept of IM and its key principles. The following research question underpinned this effort: What step can be taken in the professionalisation of IM, based on the perspectives from theory and practice? For this, the theoretical perspectives on IM and its professionalisation were studied first, by means of a literature review. Then, practitioner perspectives were studied on the same topics through semi-structured interviews with twelve practitioners involved in the different domains of integral project management. These practitioners were all employed by a large Dutch engineering and consultancy firm. The gathered data was then subject to thematic analysis. A comparison of the findings revealed a similar dichotomy in IM in both theory and practice: a distinction between the technical and organisational aspect. As the results showed possibilities for professionalisation from both sides, it was argued that professionalisation should ultimately happen on both fronts. To create a basis for professionalism, an appropriate means to integrate the theoretical and situated knowledge needed to be found. To this end, literature on the professionalisation of related construction management disciplines was consulted. Inspired by the professionalisation of risk management, a set of key principles was deemed an appropriate medium to integrate the theoretical and situated knowledge of IM. Hence, a rough guide to IM has been created containing key principles. These principles have been validated by two IM experts in separate validation interviews. Concluding, the development of a set of key principles of IM is the answer to the research question, which in itself provides a step towards professionalisation. Uniformity on the topic has now been created by the convergence of knowledge from theory and practice. The principles thereby lay a foundation for (professionalism in) conducting IM, while leaving room for customisation at the same time. Practitioners from the different roles of integrated project management are recommended to use the principles at the start of (infrastructure) construction projects to create an understanding of interfaces and IM in general. It is believed that in this way the established uniformity on paper can be translated to practice.

A System Dynamics study towards the potential effects of interventions on the food waste produced by households. Households are a major contributor to the waste of food within the Netherlands. There are negative consequences regarding the waste of food. A causal relation diagram is created, a set of interventions is defined, and based upon a System Dynamics model is created. Based upon the simulations, it is concluded that the process in which food is wasted is fragmented. Reducing the waste of food effectively demands combining multiple interventions. There are two important aspects within a household when multiple interventions are applied. Interventions should focus on the 'willingness' and on the 'knowhow' within a household. Focusing on both aspects results in a synergy. The combined effects of the interventions is bigger than the individual effects accumulated.

The positive relation between the performance of the client-contractor team and the end-result of a project has led to a growing attention for the human factor in construction procurement exercises. Over the last decade, assessments of constructors’ collaborative behaviour have been used more widely as a partner selection method. One of the most intensive forms of evaluation on soft parameters can be performed via an assessment (centre), also called workshops, with the tenderer’s and client’s team. The purpose of this explorative study is to provide more insights by 1) collecting the client’s motives to use these collaborative tender criteria, 2) identifying the different formats of assessments, and 3) learning lessons from projects that have conducted behavioural assessments. Ten cases are selected across the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Finland, all of which focus on the procurement phase of a medium to a large-scale infrastructure project. Eleven semi-structured interviews with project and contract managers are used together with five assessor-interviews to gather empirical information. These independent assessors are involved by a public client to score the tenderer’s team during the assessment on a predefined list of sub-criteria. The thematic analysis shows that the use of collaborative criteria can be linked to the development of relational contracting and early contractor involvement. Especially in alliance and design team models with an integrated project team, a high weight is assigned to collaboration in the tender evaluation. Clients also aim to stimulate bidders to be more aware of collaboration and soft skills. The team assessment is applied for this purpose: it assesses the authentic behaviour of key figures that will be working on the project instead of only focussing on written bids. Results reveals that the assessment puts ‘collaboration’ high on the agenda of all parties right from the start, brings the team-related points for attention upfront, and stimulates bidders to approach team composition in another way. Nevertheless, several other instruments could lead to (some of ) the same goals and ongoing attention is needed to utilise the benefits of the assessment. Hence, the attitude and reflection of the client’s team is considered to be crucial for proper implementation. This study shows that the team assessment has proven to enable clients to make a more informed choice for a contractor on its collaborative behaviour. In this way, team assessments can fulfil the potential of being one of the instruments to facilitate high performing teams and project success.

Despite continuous efforts to improve, the construction industry is prone to failure of large infrastructure projects in terms of time and cost overruns. It is believed good interface management is contributing to the success of infrastructure projects. The research has been executed at Heijmans, a major contractor in the Netherlands. The purpose of this research is to explore which organizational interfaces are related to project success, from a contractor's perspective, and how this can be improved. In order to assess which organizational interfaces are present on infrastructure projects an exploratory case study of four road infrastructure projects with integrated contracts, has been performed. Current literature shows that the definition of project success is different for each stakeholder on the project. Clients are mainly interested in indicators related to the outcome of the project. End users find a project successful when it meets their expecations. Contractors continue to value indicators related to costs, time and quality, most important. The research identified a number of organizational interfaces present on road infrastructure projects with integrated contracts at Heijmans, namely internal relations within Heijmans, the relation with the client and the relations with subcontractors. The case study has revealed there is a difference with respect to client type. In general, projects in cooperation with Rijkswaterstaat were more successful in comparison to projects with lower government organizations. The root cause for this difference in relationship is the level of knowledge and experience from the client. This difference results in controlling behaviour from the client which frustrates the process for the contractor, resulting in less control and lower project success. A good relationship between client and contractor is essential for project success.

Despite the mission of universities to help engineering students develop leadership, many engineers perceive that this ambition is not being met in practise, but often later in engineers’ professional careers. This work on engineering education explores how educational organisations can support engineering student’s leadership development using experiential learning. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was used to explore the topic through 25 interviews with engineering student leaders, professionals, and educators in TU Delft and Engineers Without Borders USA. The experiential methods explored included Project Based Learning, Project Based Service Learning, and Internships. Perceptions of students, educators, and engineering professionals alike confirmed that engineering leadership is a complex notion. While viewed by some as being an individual responsibility, it is viewed by others as being a more abstract group process. Leadership development is part of a dynamic process, one that is rarely explicitly strived for by students or course designers. While students indicated that they believed experiential learning helped support their leadership development, they rarely joined those contexts with that goal in mind. Additionally, the experiential contexts explored weren’t usually designed with leadership development as an explicit outcome. This may be because leadership is a difficult outcome to measure. It is also possible that a focus by universities on technical qualification has led to a trade off in the subjectification and socialisation of students as socially responsible leaders. All of this considered, engineering leadership development will likely continue to remain an elusive to measure goal. However, this research contributes to the larger field by presenting a set of factors of experiential methods that organisations can use to support leadership development. They can do this by structuring experiential learning methods in ways that promote a feeling of psychological safety within student engineering teams.

This thesis is focused on benchmarking municipal sport policy. Physical activity is used by the Dutch government as a policy tool to create a healthy society. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport stimulate people to adopt active life styles in order to combat the prosperity diseases: overweight, diabetes and depression. In benchmarking municipal sport policy there are the following complexities. Firstly complexities related to the governance of municipal sport policy, there are many actors involved with contradictory interests. In addition municipal sport policy is focussed within municipal boundaries and evolves on previously pursued policies. Secondly complexities related to benchmarking. Benchmarking is from origin a method developed for the industrial industry and now is also applied in the public sector, but the applicability of the method is contested. Moreover benchmarking is not straightforward and is dependent on its design, data reliability and the way of processing data. An essential actor in sport policy are the municipalities: they conduct sport policy in order to heave healthy citizens and focus their policy to a large extent on sport facilities. Currently municipalities lack insight in whether the output of the sport policy (namely the quantity, type, and location of sport facilities) leads to the desired effects (namely healthy citizens), which we define as a lack of insight in the effectiveness of the sport policy. This insight is crucial for municipalities, since it can be used in the policy evaluation to assess the performance of their policy. A method that has been proven useful for measuring and comparing of performance is benchmarking. Benchmarking is the research in which the output between organisations can be compared. However, there is a lack of literature describing how sport policy by municipalities can be compared, whereas comparison with other municipalities can provide additional insights and stimulate learning. In this study a benchmarking method for municipal sport policy aspects is developed and conducted. The benchmarking method is designed based on a benchmarking literature review. Based on the review it was established that the design of the benchmarking method consists of phases, process steps and criteria. Subsequently with the literature review a benchmarking model is designed consisting of phases, steps, and criteria directed at assessing the performance of municipal sport policy. In the benchmarking criteria common elements are: the usage of indicators, transparency in performance measurement method and self-assessment of performance. In the benchmarking models common process steps are: set objectives, define indicators, select benchmark groups, collecting data, preparing data, analyzing data, determining significant different findings and reporting findings. With the designed benchmarking model the benchmark is conducted, resulting in the following findings. The benchmarking results found no significant correlation between the dimensions, the output and the outcome of municipal sport policy. This study found that for benchmarking both the benchmarking design as the benchmarking process are crucial. Currently literature focuses on the design of the benchmarking method. This study found that the benchmarking process confronts challenges mainly related to data analytics.

Situation: A large portion of the beneficiaries of humanitarian aid have little to no proof of their identity, this is especially the case in African countries, in which humanitarian intervention is common. In order to facilitate aid to these individuals, humanitarian organizations (HOs) leverage their on-the-ground capacity to create identity profiles and risk assessments of these people. However, in-kind aid is being increasingly replaced by Cash Transfer Programs (CTPs). In CTPs, beneficiaries are provided with funding to self-procure their necessities. Complication: For efficient CTPs, these humanitarian identities need to be accepted beyond the boundaries of humanitarian aid. However, by relying on traditional identity management systems, HOs expose the beneficiaries to security and function creep risks. In order to share beneficiary identity information in a more responsible way, HOs have started to leverage Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) systems. These SSI systems need to be scaled up to a more foundational nature in order to facilitate private-sector services. For this a collaboration with national public- and private stakeholders is required. In order to realize that, there is a need for a process design. Which among other things ensures support from crucial stakeholders. Approach: This study used a Design Science Research inspired approach, combined with a Systems Engineering perspective to explicate the problem, define support driving and constraining circumstances and conditions, generate principles for the humanitarian sector to create support driving circumstances and conditions in Kenya and validate these principles using the input of industry experts. This research approach had a focus of practical insights over theoretical insights. Results: A set of five validated support nurturing principles were established with which humanitarian organizations can nurture support for a more foundational humanitarian SSI system in Kenya. Additionally, a framework has been composed with which local circumstances and conditions in a country can be assessed. Next steps: Further research should focus on establishing a more complete process design for a collaboration process, which also deals with participation of stakeholders, structures commitment and defines process rules for different phases of the process. Additionally, further research should explore the capacity and willingness of beneficiaries to control their own identity. And finally, the effect of international innovation initiation on the willingness of national stakeholders should be explored.

Every year large quantities of plastic waste accumulate in Bali’s environment. This has a negative impact on Bali’s environment, local society and its tourist driven economy. With lacking waste management facilities and local awareness plastic waste enters Bali’s rivers, through which the waste ends up in the ocean. A concept small-scale recycling business, aiming to improve local waste management and awareness, is proposed to solve the problem at the source. The goal of this research is to investigate the technological, social and financial feasibility of the concept recycling business and to find a target location. The research first aims to choose three potential locations with different social-demographics through a literature study on Bali’s regional social-demographics and the results of previous ”Pantai” Project researches. Based on this three locations are chosen: Denpasar, Canggu and Pulukan. For better understanding of the areas of interest, the crucial steps for setting up a business on Bali and its local waste management are investigated. A detailed stakeholder analysis is therefore also conducted. This is researched through participatory observation, literature study and interviews with local inhabitants, local businesses and governmental institutions. Surveys are conducted in the areas of interest to analyze how to Balinese handles their plastic waste, their mentality towards the plastic problem and their willingness to participate in the concept recycling plan. The results of the survey show enthusiasm of the local people towards the concept recycling business in the target areas. However, not all stakeholders are represented in conducted surveys, thus care must be taken when concluding the social feasibility. To investigate the technological feasibility literature study is done on plastics and different techniques in all steps of the recycling chain. Through this, feasible techniques for all steps of the recycling chain are chosen, regarding the concept recycling business. Plastic waste is to be sorted by hand and processed by easy operable machinery based on the open-source designs of Precious Plastic. A conceptual model of the small-scale recycling business is introduced for better understanding of the plastic and money streams involved in the concept recycling facility. To investigate the financial feasibility, first the plastic stream is evaluated. In each location households separated and collected all their plastic from the rest of their waste for one week to estimate the composition and quantity of their weekly plastic waste production. From this result the plastic input per location is estimated through calculations. A model is presented to evaluate financial stability of the concept recycling business. Input values for the model are the results from own waste collection measurements and the values acquired from connected parties. Calculations show, although being a rough estimate, financial feasibility. However more in-depth market study has to be performed for more detailed results. Taking everything into account it can be concluded that it is indeed feasible to start a small-scaled recycle business on Bali in Pulukan or similar areas, which is determined by a multi criteria trade-off. However close consideration of local conditions should always be taken into account.