Samenvatting

This paper includes the research conducted towards the SME businesses’ ability to adjust with the help of students. The research question of the Business Booster project is four-fold:
1. To what extent do SME businesses focus on the future?
2. To what extent can students boost (strategic) renewal at SME businesses?
3. To what extent can design thinking foster future-oriented thought and action?
4. To what extent can students use design thinking to boost SME businesses?
The Business Booster project has been executed in cooperation with lecturers and students of the study programme Marketing Management of the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. The research project aligns closely to the mission of the study programme, as the students are educated to determine commercial policy in business and to create value.