Capturing and maintaining value by innovation intermediary organisations

In 2005 I finished the MSc in Land and Water management at Van Hall-Larenstein. Managing water systems has interested me throughout my life. As a young boy I went fishing for weeks on end. And when I was at home I watched either David Attenborough or Jacques Cousteau. When in high school, I was digging fish ponds in peoples gardens. And when moving into college and university, I learned all there is to learn about ecology in relation to landscape and water management. Dul & Hak (2008) emphasize that the ‘exploration and defining the research topic’ is a very important phase. I had ideas, but while choosing a thesis-topic found it very difficult to apply this prescription. I am self-employed, so I can choose whatever I like. I experienced this to be an enormous privilege. It also made choosing challenging, because of the many interesting topics throughout the last semesters at the RSM and during my fifteen years of working that preceded it. ‘Going back to where I was coming from’, turned out to be the solution. I was going to study the concept of Building With Nature. In September 2017 I started the part time master of science program in Business Administration (MScBA). The first three semesters have been intense, but I would not have wanted to miss them for the world. It has been a true enrichment of my life. This document contains the final assignment in this life changing program, the master thesis. Thinking back, finding a fitting research topic has been a search on itself for me, a soul-search. I am nevertheless pleased with the topic this journey turned out guiding me towards. In this regard, I was very much charmed and surprised by the somewhat disillusioning closing line of Evanschitzky et al;“of course, that is why science calls it research and not just search” (2012, p.30). That, is the very essence of me signing up for the program. I say a word of thanks to my coach, Dr. Wim Hulsink and co-reader, Dr. Koen Dittrich for their expertise and the important feedback they have given me along the way. I also thank my interviewees located in various different organizations. I chose to interview a variety of people, the fact that they were all willingly cooperating, providing me with valuable and practical information, enabled me to make this research project a success. I want to explicitly thank my parents Willem and Willemien Morijn, who are always unconditionally supportive and interested in my endeavours and progress in life. Furthermore, I thank my brother John Morijn, who is a very sharp thinker, very critical in his opinions and who has given me many examples of how to accomplish what you wish for in live. It comes down to having guts, being perseverant and don’t being bothered about what other people think of you too much. Finally, I address Martijn Kampshoff and Dianne van Essen. As both my business partners and friends, they have facilitated me in remarkable ways.