Platform technologies permeate Business-to-Business (B2B) environments, including the transport and logistics sector. For example, in the transport and logistics sector, a shipper can use a booking platform for transportation of goods allowing them to collaborate with many different known or unknown organizations. Platforms can be seen as networks where supply and demand come together, where interactions occur, and where parties collaborate in an impersonal environment. In this context, trust is essential to reduce risks and uncertainties arising from the impersonal nature of platforms.

When using platforms, organizations often find it challenging to obtain complete and reliable information about another party, interpret their behaviour, and verify the identity of the other organizations. Trust supports collaboration by ensuring that mutual expectations are met. This trust can stem from past experiences or available information about a party.

With the rise of platforms and potential information asymmetry, it is crucial to investigate how trust contributes to collaboration on platforms. This study focuses on the influence of trust and how platform-mediated collaboration can be enhanced. The main research question is as follows: How does inter-organizational trust influence collaborations mediated by platforms in the transport and logistics sector? Through in-depth interviews with stakeholders and the design of the simulation game FreightBooking the main research question is answered. The objective of this study is to formulate suggestions for users of a platform on how to deal with trust when collaborating through a platform. Based on a literature review, interviews, and a game experiment, findings suggest when organizations collaborate through a platform, organizations should be aware that trust in the other organization is strongly connected to trust in the platform, the platform organization, and the platform community. Subsequently, experience plays a crucial role, both in assessing the overall trustworthiness of the community (i.e., is the overall community trustworthy?) and in evaluating a specific organization's trustworthiness (i.e. is the organization with whom I want to collaborate trustworthy?).
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This thesis studies how serious game developers can develop robust business models with regard to future uncertainties that these developers must be able to deal with. Twelve in-depth interviews were held with managers, owners, and entrepreneurs of serious game developers in the Netherlands to identify and describe in detail the future uncertainties that the industry faces and to form insights about various business model elements. During the interviews, a PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological aspects) was done with the participants to identify the uncertainties and the STOF business model ontology (Product, Technology, Organisation, and Finance domains) was used to structure a discussion about the business model elements. 25 Uncertainties within the industry are identified and described, and 34 business model elements are examined. Five uncertainties are chosen as input for a Business Model Stress Test. This resulted in 212 insights about how the 34 business model elements hold against the five selected uncertainties. These insights can be used as a basis for serious game developers to construct and test their own business model and do business model innovation. ... Read more

Intermodal Inland Waterways Transportation (IIWT) has been the first alternative to reduce the dependency on road transportation in the Netherlands. However, with the growth of freight shipping demand, several problems have been faced by IIWT: small size barge’s congestion and insufficiency of inland terminal handling’s capacity. The idea to implement collaboration models between the involved operators has been suggested which is assumed to give an impact on the performance level. These impacts have not been clearly defined for each different collaboration model. Hence, this study aims to show the different characteristics of each collaboration models and how they affect the performance level of the operators. Simulation gaming is utilized as the research tool with the consideration that this approach can facilitate the interaction between the players and the system. This interaction is important as it illustrates the condition in the real market. ... Read more

The oil and gas industry is seeking to improve safety on its current operations procedures (Choudarki, 2012). From all oil and gas operations, Topside Installation Processes (TIP) are the only offshore activity that counters one of the golden safety rules, “do not stand or walk under suspended loads” (Peuscher & Groeneweg, 2012). As a consequence, marine companies are seeking to improve these processes through different technological solutions (Heerema Marine Contractors, 2014). TIP generally consist on the lifting of a heavy module, topside, and its placement on a fixed structure on the sea, jacket (Hee et al., 2007). Traditional positioning tools such as bumpers and guides are not suitable for these type of processes given the heaviness and big dimensions of topsides (Heerema Marine Contractors, 2017). As a consequence, part of the vessel crew is located on the jacket, under the suspended topside, to guide the positioning processes (Breidablikk, 2010). TIP imply the presence of crew members under a suspended load, which is contrary to oil and gas companies’ safety policy. The offshore industry is currently investigating ways to circumvent having personnel on the jacket during topside installations (Heerema Marine Contractors, 2014). The implementation of a camera-based augmented reality positioning tracking system could fulfil the current safety requirements. The use of augmented reality as a positioning tool is a completely new technology that has never been used before in this domain. This research explores the potential expected benefits of the use of an Augmented Reality Positioning System (ARPS) during Offshore Topside Installation Processes (OTIP). This research also investigates the system’s usefulness and the users’ system perception on its usability in OTIP. Moreover, it explores the implications and factors that should be considered in order to successfully implement the ARPS in this type of processes. The research is based on a case that relates to the first augmented reality positioning system for topside installation processes, that is being developed by TWNKLS and Heerema Marine Contractors. The research methodology is based on data collected from different experiments and interview processes. The conclusions include discussion about the benefits, usability and implications of ARPS in OTIP, and recommendations for the ARPS developing companies and for future research. Key words: Augmented Reality, Innovation, Topside Installation, Safety, Offshore, Positioning Processes. ... Read more

The online grocery retail industry is rapidly growing and has to improve order picking activities which is one of the most costly and labor-intensive activities of their supply chain. Gamification has been promised to increase the motivation and productivity of order pickers, but empirical findings in real world work environments are still missing. In this case study, a gamified design was tested during an intervention with professional order pickers. The design contained the following game elements: points, badges, leaderboards, performance graphs and avatars. The results show that the motivation of the order pickers are positively influenced by the intervention and that this led to a higher productivity. Besides, it was found that different game elements were differently appreciated depending on the level of experience of the order picker. ... Read more