On Thursday 12 June 2008 Rick Middel of the School of Management and Governance of the University of Twente defended his thesis entitled "Collaborative Improvement: Action Learning in the Extended Manufacturing Enterprise. An Action Research Approach."

His research was focused on gaining insight into and developing an understanding on the process of continuous collaborative improvement. Attention is paid to the process of collaborative improvement, leading to an understanding of how factors influence and contribute to the process of collaborative improvement, and how companies need to deal with these factors to help shape collaborative improvement outcomes. Central in this research was the application and contribution of an Action Learning and Action Research approach in collaborative improvement within a Dutch Extended Manufacturing Enterprise in the CO-IMPROVE project.

Rick defending his thesis.	The graduation committee.

Rick was supervised by Professor Olaf Fisscher and Professor Aard Groen. Professor Mariano Corso was also a member of the graduation committee.