Acknowledgements

Abstract

For four years I have been working with pleasure on this thesis and it is now a pleasure to thank all those who contributed to its completion. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors. Arnold, Sytze and Alfred, most of all I should thank you three for all your efforts in learning me to write a scientific article. Arnold, you were stimulating throughout the project, provided a great network when looking for casestudies and showed great engagement in the testing phase of the questionnaire for chapter 7. Sytze, you were the best reviewer I could have wished for. At the start of the PhD, I would get upset by your reviews on draft documents, only later to learn that your remarks were always to the point and always led to significant improvement. Alfred, your enthusiasm throughout, but especially on chapter 5, was much appreciated. Both Sytze’s and your statistical support were of the ideal combination of scientific soundness and pragmatism. The anonymous reviews on submitted articles were always to the point, they always showed great understanding of the topics addressed and always led to improvement of the submitted work. So thanks to you, anonymous reviewers. I hop