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Capabilities for managing business processes: a measurement instrument

Amy Van Looy (Department of Business Informatics and Operations Management, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium)

Business Process Management Journal

ISSN: 1463-7154

Article publication date: 23 September 2019

Issue publication date: 16 January 2020

1216

Abstract

Purpose

Well-founded measurements are of high value because a better connection between business process management (BPM) and maturity models (MMs) improves an organization’s performance. Although MMs are appropriate tools for organizations to manage their business processes and, therefore, enjoy popularity, most of these models suffer from their foundation, validation and/or capability coverage. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by providing metrics to measure and manage business processes.

Design/methodology/approach

A high-standard and multistaged procedure was followed to systematically develop and validate the measurement instrument involving international academics and practitioners across four continents. Different rounds were used for item identification, item selection, item revision, instrument preparation (pretest and pilot) and instrument application using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The instrument measures 4 main capability areas, 13 subareas and 62 items. The work explains how to conduct BPM assessments in a more theoretically sound way and reports on the instrument’s development to show high levels of construct validity, content validity and reliability.

Research limitations/implications

The author provides a rigorous and more evidence-based instrument, facilitating the BPM discipline’s need of empirical research.

Practical implications

The author proposes parameters to configure the instrument.

Originality/value

Serving as a reference framework, the instrument strengthens BPM’s empirical and theoretical foundations. Since the instrument is free for scholars and practitioners, the author illustrates the research streams and business situations in which the instrument can be applied (in full or in part). This paper paves the way for transforming the instrument into an optimization MM with advice or improvement paths, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Keywords

Citation

Van Looy, A. (2020), "Capabilities for managing business processes: a measurement instrument", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 287-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-06-2018-0157

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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