Dear all,

I'm now studying on the PhD at the Erasmus University, the Netherlands on the
topic entitle: Deregulation of the public transport market: the significance for
innovation and the development of technology.  This project is a cooperation
between TRAIL, the Netherlands Research School for Transport, Infrastructure
and Logistics and TNO-Inro, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific
Research.

The study’s general hypothesis is: what effect does deregulation (on the public
transport market) have on innovative capability and which innovation
trajectories will dominate? Generally, rationales of regulatory reforms in public
utilities (including public transport) depend on (micro) economic foundation.
The economic efficiency is usually referred as the objective of these reforms
(e.g. deregulation and privatisation). However, the effects of deregulation on
the technology development is also important and the deregulation often sited
to encouraging the innovation in the market, but it is rarely found the research
dealing with these effects.

The hypothesis of my research will lie in the field of technology dynamics. This
scientific field is relatively new and still undergoing dramatic development. This
means that the nature of this research cannot be limited to the application of
existing methods, but also entails the development of methodology. The case
study is needed to refine the methodology. In this research, I will concentrate
on the public transport market in two main modes namely rail and bus and
also only concentrate on passenger transport. As the deregulation in public
transport is widely implemented, especially in EU countries, an international
comparison (either rail or bus) can be possible.

Since, as far as I know, this will be the first attempt to dealing with the effects
of technological development and innovation in public transport market, I will
be very pleased if anyone want to have a discussion on this topic, please
contact me via e-mail or postal address below.

Best regards,
Sumet Ongkittikul

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Sumet Ongkittikul
Erasmus Centre for Sustainable Development and Management
Erasmus University Rotterdam
P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 10 408 1676 / 408 2050
Fax: +31 10 408 9104
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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