The objective of this study is to assess the extent to which Large Language Models (LLMs) can accurately automate the qualitative coding of policy narratives compared to a manually coded dataset. Narratives are integral to human communication, providing the structure through which individuals interpret facts and shape practices that evolve into formal policies. Analyzing policy narratives is crucial for understanding stakeholder interests, managing conflicts, and enhancing policy effectiveness. While traditional methods of narrative analysis have been manual, the exponential growth of available data has made such approaches impractical. This study explores the feasibility of using LLMs to automate the systematic analysis of policy narratives within the framework of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). The findings reveal that while LLMs exhibit good repeatability and perform better in scenarios with fewer categories in the codebook, their overall performance remains inadequate compared to manual coding. Metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1 scores, and Krippendorff's alpha indicate significant limitations in their current ability to perform this task reliably. The significance of this research lies in its potential impact on policy analysis, as successful automation could allow for the analysis of much larger corpora of data, leading to richer insights. However, the study also identifies several limitations, including the time constraints, the number of available coders, and the limited range of LLM models tested. Future research directions include the development of a robust codebook through collaboration among multiple experienced coders, the use of specialized LLMs, and improvements in prompt design through the incorporation of more examples, chain-of-thought reasoning, and breaking down the task into smaller, more manageable parts.

Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain, and the internet of things offer interesting opportunities to automate business processes. With the potential to streamline operations like claims management, underwriting, and customer service, these advancements appear to be especially promising for insurance companies. Nevertheless, digital transformation does not come without its barriers, such as IT-system legacies, regulatory demands, and business issues. One challenge for digital transformation is the rejection of innovations. Insurers, therefore, need their internal stakeholders to accept and adapt to technological change.

This study investigates this barrier to a successful digital transformation of the insurance industry. Following a literature review on innovations in this realm and technology acceptance, this thesis aims to identify factors influencing the behavioral intention to use technologies within this context....

Currently, the Dutch National Police are looking to optimize resource allocation and decision-making through the measurement of the concept: “safety.” However, the measurement of safety does not have a universally defined method in the branch of policing and security. Qualitative data collection methods are being increasingly implemented in police departments around the world to improve safety and security. These data collection methods aim to implement evidence-based policing practices in order to form predictive assessments of future crime. Additionally, qualitative reporting methods such as officer interviews and victimization surveys can complement current quantitative data collection by improving police-community engagement and mitigating
"dark numbers" (unreported crimes).

This research aims to address what the implementation of victimization surveys and officer interviews, in coordination with current data collection methods, can add to an optimized police response and resource allocation to future crimes in theft for the Dutch National Police. The research approach of this thesis takes inspiration from commonalities found in a scoping literature review of policing methods around the world and a former joint interdisciplinary project (JIP) with the Dutch National Police. The perspectives of victims and police, which can be partially measured by surveys and interviews, are considered to significantly affect safety and security within society.

The research method was executed through the use of surveys (historical CBS data and theoretical scenario surveys) and officer interviews. These surveys and officer interviews were designed to determine how significantly certain victim factors, such as amount stolen, income, geography, and past experiences of theft affect a victim's perception on the severity of the theft, reporting threshold, and desired outcome in reporting theft. The method designed was flexible, as the ability to implement surveys to people that measures income and geography was dependent on both the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) and the data security concerns of the Dutch National Police.

Based on a victimization survey given to 1547 respondents, these victim factors do correlate with the perceived significance of theft. The magnitude and significance of these correlations are displayed in this report, and comparison with police employee interview results leads to significant insights that may determine why these correlations exist. In brief summary, the victim factors of income, geography, previous victimhood, and the amount stolen in theft generally have positive correlations with a respondent's victimization chance, reporting threshold, desired monetary compensation after theft, general satisfaction in successful reporting outcomes, and the perceived severity of theft.

A concluding recommendation from this research is to consider the further implementation of victimization surveys as a complementary data collection method. Specifically, the correlation of victim factors to the perceived significance of theft can assist in predictive policing through victim profiles that more accurately estimate dark numbers. In addition, the concept of adding qualitative measurement methods on victim factors to a universally-defined equation of safety can serve as a complement to current quantitative crime statistics. Through this implementation, current theft prevention and resource allocation strategies may be improved for the Dutch National Police, leading to a safer society.

Increased pace of developments strain the ability of policy makers to be timely and sufficiently informed. While there are already sufficient methods available for gauging what plays a role, topic modelling is a novel method that has the potential to be deployed at high speed with low effort. Values play an important role as it shapes policy making and in turn affects stakeholders. A semi-supervised topic modelling method called correlation explanation (CorEx) was used for this purpose as it allows steering the model to find aforementioned values. Green hydrogen is used as a case study where topic modelling is used to find values in scientific literature on this subject. Green hydrogen is envisioned to play a more important role in the context of decarbonisation. Such a transition has a major influence on society engaging business and households alike. Three different value sets are used reflecting different perspectives. These perspectives focus on corporate values, public values and the context in which hydrogen is discussed respectively. It was found that using topic modelling to identify values is highly constrained by its given inputs and processed outputs however. A methodological framework is therefore proposed. It suggests how topic modelling can be conducted for the purpose of identifying values playing a role in a certain domain. This framework consists of five components which are value definition, corpus selection, language processing, topic modelling and result interpretation. Utilising this framework helps with structuring the topic modelling procedure and identify bottlenecks in result quality.

As our electricity system becomes more complex, decentralized, and unstable, research on solutions to relieve the grid are needed. Local energy storage could contribute significantly to the solution. This study focused on one solution in particular: the neighborhood battery. Neighborhood batteries are emerging as a technical and social innovation for smart neighborhoods, which enable to share and store energy collectively. Since each neighborhood has its own characteristics, different technical needs, and economic conditions, the fitability of a battery per neighborhood will also differ. If stakeholder values are considered during a project, the technology can have more support from the citizens. Therefore, technology support can be considered as an important aspect of the success of new projects to succeed. In this thesis, it is considered neighborhood batteries have embedded values and can satisfy the demands of different actors. The theory of Responsible innovation tries to align technological innovations with the technical, socio-economic, and institutional aspects of the innovation. The objective of this study is to better understand the alignment of technical functionalities of the batteries and citizens' values. Accordingly, neighborhood batteries are not only assessed on a technological and economic performance indicator, but ethical aspects provide a wider understanding of the development of neighborhood batteries. Agent-Based Modeling is used to model the batteries in the neighborhood and study the influence of values and interactions on the technology support. In addition, this research uses Schwartz values to model values.

The results show the multi-functional usability of neighborhood batteries. Additionally, the results demonstrate how a neighborhood battery can be designed to match the values of the neighborhood and how value similarity and communities can influence the support for the battery. The diverse functionalities of the neighborhood battery show advantageous technical and economic capabilities. The current rules and regulations enable battery projects, but still business models that achieve large-scale implementations are missing. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the amount of neighborhood battery projects in The Netherlands that focus on equal benefits for all energy users. Within these projects, value-based decisions can help the process of implementing the neighborhood battery. It is important to consider the social dimensions of neighborhood batteries and responsible innovations can help to do so. If more attention is given to local developments and the role of all energy users, the neighborhood battery will provide a platform to store and share your power.

This thesis focuses on frugal innovations and over-engineering in the mobile phone industry and medical industry. These industries often over-engineer their products and services. For the mobile phone industry, businesses strive to give ever-improving products and services to their most profitable and demanding customers while paying less attention to others who are less demanding. In reality, firms’ over-engineered products/services often beat less-demanding customers’ performance standards. On the other hand, over-engineering medical equipment is due to owing to standards and regulations. This makes it more difficult for people to access medical equipment. Not everyone can afford it and not everyone is capable of operating such sophisticated equipment. Frugal innovations aim to strive to lower the cost of products, services and systems for the Bottom of the Pyramid. To (partially) solve the problem described, the research objective for this thesis is to investigate the factors of frugal innovations to affect over-engineering in the mobile phone industry and for medical equipment in the medical industry by means of two case studies.

The study aims to add to the existing knowledge base on individual ambidexterity by adopting a trait-based approach. As this area of individual ambidexterity is still comparatively new, limited study has been undertaken on the internal factors that determine individual ambidexterity. Further the study addresses the degree to which personality traits may influence ambidexterity in individuals. I investigate the influence of three personality traits on individual ambidexterity. The personality traits understudy are: Openness, conscientiousness and extraversion. For the purpose of this thesis, a mixed method approach was adopted, with semi-structured interviews and a survey. Results from the semi-structured interviews indicated internal factors that explain the link between personality traits and individual ambidexterity. For the quantitative study, a survey was conducted with a sample of 116 employees, working in the coffee sector in the Netherlands. This research examined the mediating roles of self efficacy, team player, and affective commitment, on the relationship between personality traits and individual ambidexterity. Results of this thesis showed that openness to new experiences, conscientiousness and extraversion positively relate to individual ambidexterity, and as a result, revealed that internal factors can be used to determine individual ambidexterity. Next to these findings, self efficacy mediates the relationship between conscientiousness and individual ambidexterity, and team player mediates the relationship between extraversion and individual ambidexterity. Contrary to our expectations, affective commitment did not mediate the relationship between openness to experience and individual ambidexterity. The findings of this thesis provide recommendations for future study and add to our definition of the construct of individual ambidexterity, which is useful in both theoretical and practical aspects.

Cybersecurity is important to hospitals and patients alike and is becoming more important as healthcare is experiencing more cybercrime over time. It is the result of complex interactions between actors and their environment during procurement, but research has not yet studied the combination of cybersecurity, healthcare and procurement together. The main research question is: What is the role of cybersecurity in hospital procurement processes and how can that role be analysed across the sector? Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with hospital cybersecurity experts. Using a combination of a purchase process model and complex decision-making framework and using semi-grounded theory techniques for analysis, five key factors and their interrelations were identified: supplier-hospital relationship, knowledge exchange and retention, alternative purchase processes, cloud transition and conflicting priorities. These factors influence the decision power of hospitals and their internal departments before and after signing off on a purchase. Based on the results, a complementary survey was developed to scale this research across Dutch hospitals. This survey serves as a stepping stonet for future research efforts.

The management of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) might represent a challenge. There are several concepts that affect the performance of SMEs. One is ambidexterity, which refers to the balance of activities for explorative and exploitative innovation. Another concept is diversity which encompasses differences in gender, age, cultural and functional backgrounds. Ambidexterity and diversity might be related as diversity influences the activities for explorative and exploitative innovation. It has been argued that successful organizations need to be ambidextrous. The relationship between a diverse middle management team (MMT) and top management team (TMT) might affect the organizational ambidexterity. This impact has not been fully explored within SMEs. The purpose of this research is to identify how diverse management teams can impact organizational ambidexterity. An exploratory approach was used to get a deep understanding and to answer the research question. First, a literature review was conducted to explore key concepts related to organizational ambidexterity and to identify diversity characteristics that might impact the relationship between MMT and TMT, affecting the organizational ambidexterity. Thereafter, semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the management team of Feedbackly to answer the research questions. This research found that diverse management teams have a direct impact in organizational ambidexterity by providing a pool of resources, increasing the expertise, knowledge, and capabilities of the organization. Nevertheless, complexity in managing diverse teams increases, as potential barriers might appear, hindering the relationship between the two levels of the management team. Additionally, organizations might struggle to recognize diversity as way to acquire additional resources, and it is often difficult to take advantage of the benefits of diversity in turning the organization ambidextrous.

The R&D productivity crisis is among the most pressing issues in the drug industry. The increasing costs and stable R&D outputs jeopardise the industry’s economic health, drug innovation, and the accessibility and affordability of medicines. The pharmaceutical R&D productivity problem is expected to be diminished due to biotechnological breakthroughs and the emergence of biotechnology firms. As a result, significant public and private investments and policy measures are aimed at stimulating the development of the biotechnology sector. In addition, firms in the pharmaceutical industry are adopting organisational strategies to mimic biotechnology companies. However, based on previous studies, the measures to stimulate the development of the biotechnology sector are not justified. Empirical evidence on the impact of the biotechnology revolution on pharmaceutical R&D productivity is limited and contradicting. Therefore, it is important for improving pharmaceutical R&D productivity to grasp biotechnology firms’ current and future contributions to R&D productivity. 

This research analysed to what extent disruption of the pharmaceutical industry by biotechnology firms can reduce its R&D productivity decline. First, I assessed the current contribution of biotechnology firms to pharmaceutical R&D productivity. For every drug approved by the FDA between 2008 and 2015, I quantitatively analysed the relationship between biotechnological organisational characteristics and three determinants of R&D productivity: the commercial success, innovativeness and medical importance of the new drug. Second, I examined whether biotechnology firms disrupt the pharmaceuticals market via new-market disruption. I empirically tested for the presence of elements of the concept of new-market disruption using statistical tests.

From this research, I concluded that disruption by biotechnology firms does not and will not reduce the pharmaceutical R&D productivity decline. Instead, the development of new biotechnology firms likely has an adverse impact on R&D productivity. Moreover, new-market disruption in the drug industry is improbable to occur and will not provide the drastic reform the pharmaceutical industry needs to improve its R&D productivity.

Established firms need to go beyond their core business in order to survive rapid technological and market changes, which can be achieved through external corporate venturing (ECV) or the creation of new business external to the firm. This approach requires a firm to develop relevant capabilities. Existing research on capability development focus on learning-by-doing, an approach that exposes firm to the risk of failure and loss. Thus, this study argues that a less risky approach to ECV capability development is needed. One possible tool that can be used is strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) that is designed according to a firm’s intention. In this context, CSR initiative can be used as a learning ground to develop a firm’s ECV capability without the typical pressure and constraints of a commercial project. The premise is explored by conducting a single case study of a startup competition held by an established ICT company in Indonesia that partners with three public universities. In this study, fifteen propositions on how strategic CSR can facilitate and support a firm’s development of ECV capability are developed, accompanied by potential challenges and solutions identified from both case study and literature study. By integrating ECV capability development and strategic CSR, a firm can achieve two objectives with one action while nurturing positive relationship with stakeholders.

A platform needs to have sufficient market potential, represented by the number of users who can join a platform. Platform openness affects the ease of actors joining the platform. Hence, in order to increase the chances of platform success, platforms want to maximize market potential and consequently also platform openness. This is problematic because architectural configurations with the highest market potential do not necessarily represent the most favourable configurations for societal values. Although there is anecdotal evidence of safety and privacy risks resulting in adjusted platform openness, there is little literature explaining the drivers and the process of adjusting due to risks posed to societal values. Hence, this thesis build an initial theory on the process of how digital platforms adjust their openness upon learning about risks for societal values. A case study was performed to pattern match theoretical concepts in a critical case. The study found that concepts of organizational legitimacy, double-loop learning and background theories may explain how a digital platform sponsor adjusts openness due to societal risks. In addition, empirical findings suggest that organizational maturity may affect platform openness. Nonetheless, it was inconclusively found whether societal risks cause a change in the value system of the platform. This research found that the identification of a societal risk may change the theories-in-use of a digital platform and subsequently affect platform openness.

Pilots, or transition experiments, are widely regarded as a means to learn more about how to tackle societal challenges. This leads to a crucial role for double-loop learning, which involves modifying the existing norms, policies and objectives. Without double-loop learning, the transition experiments will be constrained in their influence. However, there is currently a lack of knowledge on how to facilitate, guide and support learning processes in transition experiments. This leads to impeded progress for the client, consortium and national government, due to lost opportunities. Therefore, the following research question is formulated: What key governance mechanisms, focused on starting conditions or design and organization, facilitate double-loop learning in mobility transition experiments? Two case studies are conducted, using desk research and semi-structured interviews, with each case study being characterized by its decision-making process. The results of this study indicate that i) involving different perspectives, such as the client, consortium and national government, are of added value to the development of learning processes and ii) paying attention to the identified conditions will provide further support. It is recommended to put more emphasis on the ability of pilots to generate knowledge on what facilitates learning processes and to center the discussion of knowledge building on research protocols. It is expected that enhanced research protocols will provide the groundwork for generating more practical knowledge in this area. This will support the development of recommendations for different stakeholders on ways to facilitate learning processes.

Nowadays, it is not enough for companies to only focus on their business operations and financial performance. ‘Doing good’ needs to be part of the business strategy as they must do their part in addressing the grand societal challenges. Cause related marketing (CRM) is one such strategy set to address this. CRM is a powerful tool used to advance both the business and the charity (the cause) to therefore achieve mutual benefit. However, there is a dark side associated to the implementation of this theory. The impact this has on consumers can be explained by the ethical aspect associated with CRM campaigns, which positively influences the consumer’s perception of the company image. Consumers undergo an attitude change because of the link to the good cause. Customers feel that buying CRM products leads them to encounter feelings of satisfaction and altruism which leaves room for companies to take advantage of this. People are often very eager to help without ever having seen proof that donations are used effectively. The latter can be achieved through vivid advertisement and a lack of transparency. There is a problem since people choose to support a cause based on the emotional connection they feel towards the cause and the company. It was proven that if the public is skeptical about the link between company and cause, or if they perceive the company as selfish and corrupt, huge outrage will follow. However, there are several challenges since only the perception of goodwill is needed to get the public on board. It can be argued that business must balance corporate and humanitarian interest. The way to effectively employ CRM is to address the challenges associated with CRM. Balance is needed to meet the business and societal interests. During this thesis project the potential dark side was explored by identifying the ethical challenges. This is done through a case study at a company in the services industry. The data was tested in two stages via interviews and a workshop with brainstorming element, respectively. Taken together, the case study identified a set of four pillars: skepticism, altruism, shared values and transparency. These findings are of importance, because they indicate that the need for shared values is, indeed, essential to cope with ethical challenges in corporate marketing activities. However, the societal aspect of business cannot be neglected. Financial and societal goals have historically been perceived as two entirely different objectives that may even clash with each other. In reality, this dichotomy may not really hold, since a business cannot survive without society, and vice versa. Shared values represent the way in which business and society can both prosper. This finding is in line with the theory of ‘Marketing 3.0’, which argues that consumers have more power than ever before to express what the requirements of a corporate CRM campaign must be in order to satisfy the needs and wants of the public. The case company was very aware of the necessity to preventing skepticism; the company carefully avoided being perceived as self-centered in their marketing activities.

The rapid growth of commercial drone raises concern regarding its close operation to the public. This research aims to support the development of commercial drone that also align with the concept of responsible research and innovation. To achieve this aim, first, the development of drone technology will be analyzed by identifying the influence of commercial drone regulation for the drone manufacturer. Second, the initiative to balance the needs of the drone manufacturer to develop commercial drone and the regulation as a means of governance for the commercial drone will be evaluated by identifying the current stakeholders’ engagement process in the commercial drone industry.

Due to the transition to sustainable transport, an increase of the share of electric vehicles is expected. The electric vehicles will increase the peak demand on the electricity grid. It is possible to shift the demand of the electric vehicles using smart grid technology. The electric vehicle owners have the option to use this smart electric vehicle system. Using the concepts of social acceptance and moral acceptability an agent-based model is used to simulate the use of the smart EV system. Based on this agent-based model possible design directions are identified for the smart EV system which reduce the expected electricity grid problems sufficiently in the long-term. For the smart EV system to be as effective as possible vehicle to grid technology in combination with an algorithm which optimizes on the network capacity have should be used. However, these options were the least accepted by the EV owners and therefore further research is required. The next step for research is to develop a businesses models for the design directions discussed in this thesis.

Many market research agencies and consulting firms claim the robotics service and consumer market is about to boom. Market reports show there’s a massive, untapped market for robots to be used in commercial spaces such as hotels, restaurants, fast-foods and cruise ships. These spaces could serve as a great stepping stone on the path toward general-purpose home robots by driving scale, volume, and capabilities. However, there is a significant research gap in this field: only few studies are available on the introduction, adoption and diffusion of service robotics technologies in the hospitality industry.
Tactile Robots (TR) is a high-tech startup based in Lecce, Italy, whose go to market strategy is to introduce its autonomous robots for indoor delivery in hotels for performing hotel room service. On one hand, nothing or only few is known regarding what is driving adoption of robotics technologies in hospitality and about which are the factors that are influencing adoption. On the other hand, Tactile Robots lacks adequate knowledge about its potential customers and the condition under which they are willing to be delivered value by TR’s innovative robotic solution.
The aim of this research is to give recommendations about the design of a viable business model for Tactile Robots by investigating the drivers of adoption of service robotics technology in hospitality industry, together with factors that are influencing adoption. Traditional Business Model (BM) design practices and BM ontologies fail in taking into account contextual factors and actors outside the firm specific value chain. In this work, we propose a novel approach to business modeling which, through a first step of empirical research involving different external stakeholders, identifies technology adoption drivers and factors under the architecture of the theoretical Technology Organization and Environment(TOE) framework. Findings are then organized to structure four case studies that represent the approach with potential customers. Multiple case study analysis provides in depth insights needed to give informed recommendations for business model design for Tactile Robots. The set of recommendations touches primarily three out of nine building blocks of the chosen business model ontology, Business Model Canvas, namely: Target customers, Value proposition and revenue model.
Research showed how, in order for service robotics solutions to be successfully introduced to the hospitality market, value propositions should address predominantly the customer facing side of hospitality business. Unlike for industrial settings, robots are not likely to be adopted by players in hospitality for the only purpose of cost reduction and enhanced productivity. They, instead, need to bring significant value to the guest by augmenting the service or providing a superior experience. Furthermore, well renowned international innovative hotel chains seem to be the most suitable target segment for service robotics applications. Finally, due to stringent financial factors, it is advisable to sell robots on a leasing model which allow hoteliers to minimize initial investment and future switching costs.
This study is the first that research business model design for service robotics startup entering the hospitality industry. Further research is required to validate the factors that are influencing adoption of robots in hotels and to find the relative contribution of these factors to adoption decisions.

In the effort to address flood problems in Jakarta, the Indonesian and Dutch Government finalized a study called Jakarta Coastal Defence Strategy (JCDS) in 2011. In the study, it is concluded that an offshore solution is crucial to protect Jakarta from the threat of sea level rise in the coastal area. The collaboration between these two countries was later continued by realizing the Master Plan for the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD). The main purpose of this master plan is to provide a long-term solution for flooding problems. In addition to the main purpose, this plan also addresses other urban problems, proposes a solution to improve the coastal zone area and facilitates socio-economic development in the area. This project encounters high resistance from public and is deemed to be controversial in the public domain as the plan includes the construction of a large protection wall enclosing the sea and land reclamation. The public perceives that this project would have fatal environmental and social impacts, including the disappearance of mangrove forest, undesirable effect on the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, etc. Hitherto the plan has remained controversial, despite formal assessment conducted by the Indonesian government and Dutch consultants, in which the plan is considered as a measure to save Jakarta from being a sinking city caused by an alarming rate of land subsidence. Noting this constant debate of the project, identifying values of stakeholders is, therefore, important to understand the underlying reasons of persistent oppositions. Hence the objective of this research is to develop an approach for mitigating conflicting values in a public project in Indonesia as the supporting tool for decision making process.

To be able to understand the decision-making process and identify the values at stake, an analysis was performed based on 243 newspaper articles which were selected using the keywords: ‘giant sea wall’ and ‘NCICD’ within a time period of 57 months; from January 2011 to September 2016. From these articles, the decision-making process was constructed to analyze how the decision-making process was conducted in the past and what important aspects have been missed in the implementation of decision-making process. In addition, values of the stakeholders were also identified by analyzing the arguments set forth by diverse stakeholders.

From the previous literature and analysis in this research, it has been observed that there are certain stakeholders who are necessary to be involved but are still underrepresented in the plan. Furthermore, the values which are fundamental to certain stakeholders have not been covered in the previous assessments. Therefore, in this research, the values of stakeholders are adopted as the basis of using expert methods in decision-making process in combination with the stakeholder participation method. To conclude this research, the following list is the summary of the developed approaches in which an adapted version of existing methods are used to address specific value conflict: EIA and MCA as the method to mitigate the value conflict of safety, economic development vs environmental protection (i), CBA as a method to mitigate safety, economic development, cost-recovery vs economic and welfare (general), utilities (ii), VSD as the method to mitigate value conflict between safety, economic development vs economic and welfare (affected communities), culture/ Identity (iii), and VSD as a method to mitigate value conflicts between safety, economic development vs port development (economic interest) (iv).

Long before the existence of today’s computer, information and communication technologies, the design of current energy grids has been set. Nowadays, ‘conventional’ energy grids – including electricity, gas and thermal grids – are being transformed into smart grids, which consist of various technological components such as smart meters, energy storage, distributed generation and smart homes. In the transition towards smart grids, the EU aims to replace 80% of all energy meters with smart meters by 2020 and the national Dutch rollout of smart meters has started at the first of January 2015. There have been – and still are – challenges, controversies, public resistance, consternation and concerns based on values during the design process of smart meters, legislative procedure of requiring smart meters in households, and rollout of smart meters. Academic literature is written regarding the importance of values in the design and development of technologies and its influence on public acceptance, resistance and consternation. Still, there are challenges concerning the incorporation of values into smart grid components, especially smart meters, since consumer perceptions and other social interest are excluded from the design process. The rollout of smart meters and successful operation of smart grids gets threatened if smart meters and other smart grid components are socially rejected.

In order stimulate the incorporation of values into smart grid components, this research has the objective “to provide input for the design for values in smart grid components by uncovering stakeholder interpretations of the values that are at stake for smart grid components”. The values that are affected by smart grid components are identified where after value descriptions and stakeholder interpretations of the values at stake are analysed to understand these values and their background. The perspective of two of the most important stakeholders – production chain organizations and end-users – is highlighted. Values are differentiated per smart grid component, stakeholder category, distinguished into supporting- or final values, and (potential) inter-value or intra-value conflicts are identified. This provides input to answer the main research question: “Which values are at stake for smart grid components according to academic literature, how are these values interpreted by Dutch stakeholders according to national newspapers and how are these values related?”.

After gaining a theoretical background regarding values in ethics of technology and smart grid components, an initial list of values, including their conceptualizations, is created. This has served as input for a literature review and content analysis which are done to identify and analyse values within smart grid components literature and within The Netherlands. The initial list of values is based on values that are often mentioned in value sensitive design literature. The literature review is done on academic literature articles that pay attention to the acceptance and acceptability of smart grid components and showed which values out of the initial list are actually affected by smart grid components and whether new values emerged. In total, twenty-five literature articles are reviewed and value-laden perceptions, barriers, motivators or factors for acceptance are uncovered, causing the initial list of values to be enriched with new values. In order to uncover stakeholder interpretations of the values at stake within The Netherlands, 56 Dutch newspaper articles have been analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis. Value-laden statements and citations are distracted, recorded and coded into values while using the list of values, their conceptualizations and coding principles that have been set in the methodology chapter. A distinction has been made between positive, negative or ambiguous attitudinal directions in which stakeholders have expressed value-laden statements towards smart grid components. Values are coded in a positive attitudinal direction when they are being enhanced or the stakeholder is in favour of using a smart grid component according to how the statement is being presented or cited. On the other hand, values are coded in a negative attitudinal direction when they are being hindered or the stakeholder is against the use of a smart grid component according to how the statement is being presented or cited. This provides insights on how these values are supported or hindered from the perspective of different stakeholders.

Within the literature review and content analysis results, values are differentiated per smart grid component, stakeholder category, and attitudinal direction. Barriers, motivator, factors or values-laden statements are explained in order to understand value descriptions and stakeholder interpretations. The literature review has shown that values are primarily expressed in a negative attitudinal direction within academic articles, meaning they are related to concerns based on values that are causing barriers for the design, development, and acceptance of smart grid components. This means that the majority of the values are being hindered due to the implementation of smart grid technologies, taking into account that the academic literature is merely representing the perspective of end-users. Values that have been most frequently recorded out the academic literature are economic development, privacy, autonomy, trust, environmental sustainability, and information cyber security. The content analysis does not only represent Dutch end-users but also stakeholders out of the production chain, research and consultancy, policy-maker and regulators, and the media, which can be considered as a stakeholder itself. Therefore, the values that are identified during the content analysis appeared to be more ambiguous, since both pros and cons were discussed and more stakeholder perspectives are represented within the newspaper articles. This means that for individual values, often, value-laden statements or interpretations are expressed in both positive and negative attitudinal directions, meaning values are supported or hindered depending on the stakeholder perspective that is taken. In general, production chain organizations report on values in a more positive attitudinal direction and end-users in a more negative attitudinal direction. Values that have been recorded most frequent within the content analysis are economic development, environmental sustainability, transparency, privacy, information cyber security, autonomy, and distributive justice. The academic literature includes the values security of supply, universal usability, and safety and health which are not mentioned in Dutch newspapers (yet), while the value of flexibility is mentioned in newspaper articles but not within the literature. This suggest that no events, incidents, or upfront concerns occurred or have been raised within The Netherlands concerning security of supply, universal usability, and safety and health. However, these values might become relevant in the nearby future within The Netherlands as well. Therefore, all values out of the literature review and content analysis are combined in order to identify supporting relationships or (potential) values conflicts.

Using the literature review and content analysis results, a network of related values is mapped that is based on overlapping value descriptions, stakeholder interpretations and interpretations of the results. The purpose of this network is to provide an overall overview of which values are connected through which descriptions or interpretations and it has helped to analyse the nature of some relationships after zooming in on these value connections. Depending on the stakeholder perspective that is being taken, final values have various supporting values, which are depicted in separated figures. The production chain and end-users are represented best within the content analysis and the most frequently mentioned final values include: economic development, environmental sustainability, reliability, privacy, distributive justice and security of supply. Three inter-value conflicts have been identified between: transparency and information cyber security, transparency and privacy, and economic development and autarky. Potential intra-value conflicts are identified based on controversies and concerns stated in the Dutch newspapers regarding the values of distributive justice, autonomy, privacy, and information cyber security. Since supporting relationships and value conflicts depend on the stakeholder perspective that is being taken, the overall network of related values can be used in future research and practical implications to identify more supporting and conflicting relationships from the perspective of other stakeholders, who may have different thoughts on which values are considered to be important or when new stakeholder interpretation for the values at stake arise. This research contributes in shaping design for values within the energy domain as well as delivering a method to map related values by means of overlapping descriptions and interpretations and to analyse the nature of these relationships thereafter. Stakeholders, especially policy-makers and production chain organizations are recommended to use this knowledge in the design- and governance of smart grid components in order to enhance the acceptance, implementation and deployment of smart grids and their components.