This blog article is in Dutch since it describes the Dutch webshop (for contactlenses) that I started a few months ago. [Dutch]. Sinds kort ben ik een eigen bedrijf begonnen met de naam LensBestel.nl. LensBestel.nl is een webwinkel waar  u terecht kunt voor contactlenzen, lenzenvloeistof en bijbehorende accessoires. Al onze leveringen zijn betrouwbaar, snel en voor een scherpe prijs! Zo rekenen wij geen verzendkosten. Daarnaast bevat onze website een bron van informatie waarmee het leven van een lenzendrager een stuk gemakkelijker wordt. Online lenzen bestellen doe je dus bij LensBestel.nl!

Read More »

How low can we go? That is the question we keep on asking ourselves during the last couple of months. But there is hope! Why should we focus on all the negativity which could bring us into a depression instead of a recession? Lets try a more positive approach for looking at the recession: the financial crisis is a real opportunity for businesses!

Read More »

The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) assesses the “development-friendliness” of 21 rich countries in seven policy areas: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, technology and the coherence between these policy issues. For the third year in a row The Netherlands ranks number 1 for this index. Although many Dutch citizens criticise the government for this, I believe one should take pride in this! At least our government shows commitment to attaining the Millennium Development Goals.

Read More »

After writing about the future of Google, it is now time to look at the vision of one of Google’s main competitors: Microsoft. With a R&D budget of 8 billion this year Microsoft should be able to come up with some useful innovations. However, history shows that Microsoft has disappointed many of its customers in the past while competitors are able to offer superior products. Therefore, Microsoft should focus its R&D efforts on core competencies instead of fighting search engine wars with Google and Yahoo. Luckily, there is hope! The embedded video below shows that Microsoft is indeed capable in innovative thinking.

Read More »

Of course I took many pictures during my travels in Southeast Asia. I found some time to select the best ones and uploaded the set to Flickr. Make sure you take a look!

Full size pictures available at Flickr.

At last months WikiSym, the international symposium on Wikis, the development of several new Wiki innovations was discussed. Both practical and academic viewpoints were taken into account during this symposium. Improvements like application-Wikis, Wiki-mashups, and graphical-Wikis are supposed to take Wikis to a whole new level. This clearly offers potential for both professional and non-professional use. Below, an overview of the upcoming innovations.

Read More »

This year Google will celebrate its 10^th birthday. With annual revenues of 16.5 billion and almost 20,000 employees, Google has entered the domain of Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple. To keep ahead of its competitors Google has shown to be creative and innovative, while staying in touch with its customers at the same time. On its 10^th birthday website Google shows its excellent track-record in a convenient timeline which includes successful products like Google Search, Adwords, AdSense and GMail. By looking at Google’s history one might wonder what new opportunities are been pursued.

Read More »

I graduated as Master of Science in Business Administration at the RSM Erasmus University in Rotterdam. During my oral defense I was offered a PHD position at one of the best business schools in the USA. My final master thesis is about The Renegotiation of Strategic Alliances which refers to post-formation dynamics in the governance of alliances. Together with three studies by Jeffrey J. Reuer, this is one of the few papers examining these events and thus clearly adds to the existing literature by identifying several determinants of these reconfigurations. An abstract of this study is provided below while you can download the final paper here.

Read More »

To finish my undergraduate studies (Honours Bachelor of Science in International Economics and Business), I wrote a thesis about multi-tiered loyalty programs. This paper examines how loyalty programs with different status levels affect consumers’ expectations, satisfaction and spending patterns. Several hypotheses were tested by distributing surveys to 214 respondents. The empirical tests provided few significant results concerning status levels, possibly resulting from a biased sample group selection and survey errors. Nevertheless, some of the results provide us with useful insights regarding loyalty cards and consumer behaviour. Download the final paper here.

Read More »

This case study will examine the looting of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad during the second gulf war in 2003. First, a basic description of the loot will be provided. Second, the demand side and supply side of the market for looted arts will be discussed. Once the actors on the market are identified, the smuggling routes and methods will be examined. Furthermore, an explanation of the laundering of artifacts and its associated money trail is given. This paper will be concluded with a short summary including important changes in laws to maintain cultural heritage. Although some of the information stays classified and the available information is in most cases biased or incomplete, this paper will try to provide an unbiased account with the available information till November 2006. Download the case study here.

Read More »