In recent years, public health deterioration is a growing concern worldwide driven by factors such as lifestyle changes, environmental degradation, and unequal access to healthcare. In-creasing rates of chronic diseases, mental health disorders, and the global spread of infectious diseases have highlight the urgent attention to these problems. Consequently, the mounting pressure on global health infrastructures reinforces the need for innovative solutions, such as digital health technologies, to improve healthcare access and overall well-being. In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital healthcare, digital health startups are at the forefront of innovation, harnessing cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and mobile health applications to transform patient care, diagnosis, and treatment. Despite their in-creasing prominence, a significant knowledge gap remains in understanding how these digital health startups effectively create, capture, and deliver value, particularly within the intricate regulatory framework of the Dutch healthcare system.
This research directly addresses this gap by exploring the key elements of value creation, capture, and delivery specific to the digital health sector in The Netherlands to conceptually understand the core of the digital health startups. These elements—value creation, capture, and delivery-are fundamental components of any business model, as highlighted by researcher Alexander Osterwalder, as represent how a company creates value for customers, captures a part of this created value, and efficiently delivers its offerings, all of which are crucial for the success of digital health startups. Building on this, through a comprehensive analysis of existing business model frameworks, this study evaluates their applicability, points of alignment and misalignment with the current research’s aim, ultimately leading to the development of a conceptual value framework. This framework is crafted to provide a holistic and conceptual understanding to business modeling, equipping Dutch digital health startups with better under-standing, structured thinking and a birds-eye view of the processes necessary to successfully navigate the complexities involved in digital healthcare innovation. This research is only a preliminary step towards developing a tool, that can be practically used by the entrepreneurs for hands-on inputs and formulation of business strategies, through further research.
he findings of this research emphasize the critical importance of a well-structured business model that balances the demands of innovation, regulatory compliance, and patient safety. The practical implications of the framework include, offering a structured methodology that benefits entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors alike. This would especially be beneficial for first time entrepreneurs in the digital health field, guiding them through the complex processes with multiple stakeholders including the inherent complexities of the digital health field.
In terms of academic contributions, this conceptual value framework is first of a kind for the digital health startups, giving an overarching and holistic view of value creation, capture and delivery for Dutch digital health startups. As touched upon previously, this has also opened a new avenue to research further and build an easy to use tool for entrepreneurs to give them actionable insights. So in that view, conceptual value framework presented in this report is really just a starting point for the further nuanced research in the topic. Similar to how the existing tools, say Business Model Canvas is widely utilized to guide startups across various sectors, this research initiates the development of a specialized tool tailored specifically for digital health startups. The conceptual value framework proposed in this study serves as an essential first step toward creating such a tool. Given that digital health startups operate within a unique regulatory and environmental landscape, this holistic framework is designed to address the specific complexities of the digital health domain, providing a comprehensive tool that en-compasses its intricate requirements. In essence, the conceptual value framework presented in this study is just the beginning—a starting point for deeper, more nuanced exploration in this evolving field.
This research not only fills a crucial gap in the literature but also lays basis for further research that can serve as a detailed road map for digital health entrepreneurs, helping them to effectively align their business models with the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the Dutch healthcare system. ... Read more

This study explores the crucial role of middle managers in implementing and facilitating Industry 4.0 (I4.0) initiatives within manufacturing organisations. While existing research primarily focuses on the role of top management in digital transformation, this study underscores the critical contributions of middle managers throughout the phases of digitisation, digitalisation, and digital transformation. The research reveals how middle managers bridge the gap between strategic objectives and operational realities through a qualitative, inductive approach involving semi-structured interviews with senior managers, middle managers, and change managers. They are instrumental in laying the groundwork for digital change, building organisational digital maturity, and sustaining continuous innovation. The study highlights the challenges posed by traditional organisational structures and suggests the need for more flexible and adaptive frameworks to support the unique role of middle managers. By rethinking and empowering middle managers as strategic partners, organisations can achieve a more effective and sustainable digital transformation, ensuring that I4.0 initiatives align with strategic goals and operational needs. ... Read more

Workflow orchestration in healthcare is a desirable field with massive opportunities. Healthcare providers are under pressure to deliver greater value and even faster than ever before. They have to deliver better care at lower cost while serving more patients. A number of integrated solutions are present in the field. However, the need for the medical staff to get the right information at the right time and the right place is prominent.
In Cardiology, cardiovascular disease now heads the World Health Organisation list of biggest killers in the world and is rapidly increasing in prevalence. On the face of it, cardiovascular disease should be ideal for developing innovative models of care that will improve the well being of the population and the sustainability of their healthcare systems.
Not connected and with multiple data entry points – the potential for human error is greater. One important step is the development of integrated solutions that streamline workflow and make procedures easier.
We tackle these problems by addressing the unmet needs from research, and translate them into requirements. The requirements are the principles that lead to a strategic design solution – PULSE – Prompt User Liaison Service Experience system.
The PULSE system is designed for the Cardiology domain. Further, the target users are in the categories of doctors, physicians and nurses. It helps the Cardiology staff to plan the right actions and make the best decisions. Moreover, it supports the Cardiology staff to collaborate with other professionals more effectively. Furthermore, PULSE is designed to hover above existing systems in hospitals that integrates information a professional needs. It is believed that PULSE can help in accomplishing effective planning, and ultimately leads to more time in better patient care. PULSE is not merely a digital product. It is a hybrid of product and service that brings workload efficiency and flexibility to the medical professionals. The vision we have for PULSE is connected well-being. It aligns to the mission of Philips: to improve the lives of billions of people in the near future. ... Read more

This project is an assignment commissioned by Houweling Interieur, a furniture retailer. They were seeking new business opportunities and therefore wanted to investigate the opportunities for a furniture lease service in the expatriate market.

Introducing a lease service would have several consequences for the company as well as for the customer. The company would take on several responsibilities from the customer, and has to cover for the purchase costs, which are repaid in small monthly payments by the customer. In general the operation of the company would become more complex and the value for the customer would be closer to his or her needs. Houweling Interieur is able to handle this more complex operation. All the physical resources necessary are available to the company. However, some of these should be expended dependent on the size of the lease operation.

If Houweling would introduce a lease service, it should position it at the high end of the market, where the company currently positions itself as well. This, because it matches the current suppliers, company vision and the Houweling Interieur brand name. However, in the expatriate market appears only to be a demand for lease furniture in the low end of the market. In the high end of the market, shipping in one’s own furniture is preferred.

While the analyses show that targeting the expatriate market with a lease service is not advisable for now, furnishing house viewings and selling separate smaller pieces of furniture fitting the small houses in the Netherlands are opportunities that have presented itself in the different analyses. Furniture lease in other markets is still an option as well.
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An exhibition in a company museum, Océ museum, is designed in this graduation project.

Océ is a global leader in digital imaging, industrial printing, and collaborative business services. The Océ museum was founded since 1983 to show the company history to its customers, fellow workers, and the interested public. In 2015, Océ opened the Customer Experience Center where visitors can experience the latest products and services of Océ.

The assignment for this project is to design the presentation for Océ small format printing to connect the Customer Experience Center and to achieve a marketing effect. The research was done on the aspects of company, the market of small format printing, and museum in order to gather content about what can be presented for marketing and get inspired on how to present the content for a better museum experience. Through iterating from content to experience, a concept was proposed to let visitors experience the company’s growth in the changing world.

The concept connects Océ museum with the Customer Experience Center by showing the evolvement of Océ’s positioning in the small format market, from office copying to production printing. The marketing effect is achieved by showing the evolvement of copying and printing facilitated by Océ’s remarkable products and unique technologies from diazo copying in the museum to inkjet printing in the Customer Experience Center. Visitors will experience the evolvement personally and have a time travelling from 1960, 1981, 1997 to the current. This experience enables visitors to have a comprehensive view on the company’s development and to witness its perseverance in technology developing and its tradition of innovation.

To validate the concept, the experience of copying by Océ 155 and with diazo copying technology in 1960 is detailed. Tests are done to evaluate this experience and recommendations for further develop are put forward based on the test results.
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