Welcome to the Radboud Educational Repository
Here, Radboud University presents theses written by students affiliated with various bachelor’s and master’s programmes at the university, as well as papers from students of the Radboud Honours Academy and publications in the Radboud journal Ex Tempore.
Recent Submissions
Item Making sense of the increasing regulations on Environmental, Social, and Governance in the European banking sector(2025-06-26)Given their facilitating role in sustainable development, organizations in the European financial sector face increasing pressure to comply with regulations on environmental, social, and governance (ESG). How organizations navigate the complexity and ambiguity around these mandatory ESG regulations remains unclear. Through a single case study, this research explores how a Dutch multinational bank operating in the European financial sector, makes sense of increasingly mandatory ESG regulations regarding their organizational structures and processes. A sensemaking perspective is used to explore how interpretations create shared understanding of ESG regulations (Weick, 1995). Through six semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the findings indicated how changes in this bank’s sustainability governance structure aims to navigate regulatory ambiguity. This bank engages in three sensemaking mechanisms to interpret and embed ESG regulations in the organization: in-depth mapping, harmonizing, and dividing responsibilities among existing roles. This research emphasizes the importance of adapting a sustainability governance structure to enable the sensemaking process. Moreover, a facilitating mechanism highlights how organizational processes enhance learning and improving during the sensemaking process. By identifying this bank’s sensemaking mechanisms on ESG regulations, this research contributes to sensemaking literature and understanding of ESG regulations in the financial sector.Item Designing for Balance: Rethinking Coordination and Control in Organizational Design A framework-synthesis of Mintzberg, Stanford, Galbraith and the IOD approaches(2025-06-26)This thesis studies the conceptual differentiation of coordination and control within the organisational design field. The focus is on enhancing the Integral Design (IOD) framework by exploring the works of Mintzberg (1979, 2023), Stanford (2013, 2022), and Galbraith (1973, 1974, 2014). It is a literature-based framework-synthesis around the main books of each author. While coordination is broadly acknowledged as a response to division of labour and integration of effort, control understanding expands from traditional command-and-control to strategic adaptability, or decentralised decision-making. The study reveals overlapping and interconnected characteristics of coordination and control mechanisms, highlighting their practical inseparability. Additionally, the thesis proposes a theoretical refinement of IOD design rules by: (1) acknowledging the importance of lateral relations, including soft aspects in design, creating a pre-phase of redesign and being more contextually dependent.Item The Impact of Gender and Disability on Opportunities for Dutch Women Entrepreneurs: a Study on Inclusive Entrepreneurship(2025-06-26)This study examines the institutional barriers faced by physically disabled women entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, in order to gain insight into the entrenched societal biases and institutional constraints that shape their access to entrepreneurship. The goal is to identify barriers and find ways to improve the entrepreneurial climate. This was accomplished through in-depth interviews with Dutch disabled women entrepreneurs and inclusive leaders from support organisations. Results show skepticism from banks, societal biases and rigid benefit policies inhibit entrepreneurial growth, whereas bureaucratic inefficiencies further restrict access to essential financial tools and support. Despite these challenges, disabled women entrepreneurs demonstrate resilience through advocacy, networking, and strategic positioning, increasing visibility and mentorship to challenge systemic discrimination. Inclusive leaders of the support organizations contribute to these efforts by providing free assistance aimed at facilitating business creation, funding and early-stage development. However, achieving meaningful change requires financial institutions to critically reassess exclusionary lending practices and policymakers to implement alterations that remove barriers to entrepreneurship. Public awareness and targeted funding initiatives are vital in fostering a more inclusive entrepreneurial landscape. Ultimately, advancing (financial) accessibility demands collaborative efforts among financial institutions, policymakers, and disabled women entrepreneurs to dismantle systemic constraints and pave the way for equitable opportunities.Item Identity work and intersectionality in entrepreneurship: how women of West-African descent in the Netherlands navigate barriers and opportunities(2025-06-26)This research investigates how women entrepreneurs of West-African descent in the Netherlands engage in identity work while facing barriers in the entrepreneurial field. Although these women are increasingly active as business owners, they are often underrepresented in policy, research, and support systems that favour dominant, white, male, Western norms of entrepreneurship. Using a qualitative, discursive approach, twelve in-depth interviews were conducted to explore how participants navigate their gendered, ethnic, and social positioning. The results show that identity work is not just about fitting in, but about actively shaping how one is seen. Participants balance cultural expression with strategic conformity, using selective self-presentation and informal support networks to gain visibility and credibility. They frame entrepreneurship not only as economic activity but as a way to claim space, express values, and resist exclusion. This research contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship, gender, and ethnicity by showing how legitimacy is negotiated through language and emotion. It also strengthens intersectionality theory by demonstrating how overlapping social positions are lived and managed in practice. The results call for more inclusive policies and support systems that move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and take seriously the complexity of intersectional entrepreneurial identity.Item Navigating Masculinity and Ethnicity: Identity Work among Surinamese-Dutch and Antillean-Dutch Immigrant Men Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands(2025-06-26)This thesis explores how Surinamese-Dutch and Antillean-Dutch immigrant men entrepreneurs navigate their entrepreneurial identities at the intersection of masculinity, ethnicity and immigration background within the Dutch context. Using frameworks like entrepreneurial identity work, compensatory identity work, and hegemonic masculinity, this thesis analyses the identity constructions in their business practices, while the focus on Caribbean-Dutch entrepreneurs contributes to greater understanding of legitimacy-gaining practices by minority entrepreneurs. The qualitative, exploratory study is based on thirteen in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs of Surinamese and Antillean descent. The findings suggest that traditionally feminine entrepreneurial traits are regarded as more influential than stereotypical masculine behaviours. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs’ ethnic and migration backgrounds inform socially driven entrepreneurial orientation. Authenticity, moreover, emerged as a central value among participants; however, dominant societal norms occasionally compel some entrepreneurs to engage in compensatory identity work to attain legitimacy
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