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Article
Publication date: 26 November 2019

Peyman Badakhshan, Kieran Conboy, Thomas Grisold and Jan vom Brocke

Business Process Management (BPM) is key for successful organisational management. However, BPM techniques are often criticized for their inability to deal with continuous and…

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Abstract

Purpose

Business Process Management (BPM) is key for successful organisational management. However, BPM techniques are often criticized for their inability to deal with continuous and significant change and uncertainty. Following recent calls to make BPM more agile and flexible towards change, this study presents the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) of agile concepts in BPM. Analysing and synthesising previous works and drawing on agility research in the field of IS, this paper introduces a framework for agile BPM. Integrating different components that define agility in the context of BPM, this framework offers a number of important implications. On the theoretical side, the authors argue that the concept of agile BPM departs in some important ways from traditional BPM research. This, in turn, points to various opportunities for future research. On the practical side, the authors suggest that emerging technologies, such as process mining, embody important features that help organisations to be more responsive to change. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

To assess the state of the art of agility in the BPM research, the authors conducted an SLR. More specifically, the authors drew on the approach of vom Brocke et al. (2009, 2015), which consists of five steps: defining the scope of the review; conceptualising the topic; searching for literature; analysing and synthesising literature; and developing a research agenda.

Findings

This study presents the results of a systematic review of agile concepts in BPM. This study then proposes a resulting research framework that can be used to strengthen the concept of agile BPM and provides an agenda for research in this rapidly growing and increasingly necessary area of BPM.

Originality/value

In this paper, the authors establish a shared understanding of agile BPM and develop an agile BPM framework that represents the current state as well as implications for research and practice in agile BPM.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 26 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 January 2019

Bartosz Marcinkowski and Bartlomiej Gawin

Process-oriented organizations are compelled to be innovative and continuously implement changes to meet customer requirements and gain a competitive advantage in accordance with…

1168

Abstract

Purpose

Process-oriented organizations are compelled to be innovative and continuously implement changes to meet customer requirements and gain a competitive advantage in accordance with the business process management approach. In the digital age, organizations develop business process support systems using agile methods and introduce adaptation skills in order to support their core business. Seamlessly integrating both practices into a coherent and practically applicable solution supporting multi-scenario processes infallibly remains a challenge. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The workshops identifying the key issues in an international capital group that consolidates facility management companies, as well as a related research review, have fueled a two-cycled Canonical Action Research (CAR) study.

Findings

The paper extends the current understanding of IT-enabled agility, proposing an adaptively improved infrastructure with a catalog of digital options that facilitates the composition of multi-scenario business processes.

Research limitations/implications

The CAR was limited to the members of management board and the managers constituting the focus groups. The agile business process management (ABPM) model proposed focuses on adding novel functionalities/building new processes, leaving functionality lifecycle out-of-scope. ABPM empirical validation is limited to a single business/technical case.

Practical implications

Real-life solution for supporting dynamic business processes was delivered, as rigid IT solutions do not support quick assembly of customized business processes with abundant number of scenarios. The infrastructure enables composition of customer-tailored services based on re-usable digital options directory as well as enhances business process discrepancies/software bugs detection, reducing the cost of maintaining IT infrastructure for entire customer portfolio. A number of issues resulting from building IT solutions within a series of isolated projects with no coherent overall development strategy are mitigated.

Originality/value

The ABPM acts as a reference model for focusing on developing critical functionalities and limiting resources consumed by redundant features.

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2016

Tomislav Hernaus, Vesna Bosilj Vuksic and Mojca Indihar Štemberger

The purpose of this paper is to examine how business process management (BPM) is incorporated within organisational structure. The authors demonstrate how a strategic interest in…

2767

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how business process management (BPM) is incorporated within organisational structure. The authors demonstrate how a strategic interest in BPM and formal responsibilities for BPM activities shape the efficiency, quality and agility of BPM initiatives. By conducting field research, useful empirical insights were drawn about the necessary conditions for ensuring the success of BPM initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey of BPM adoption practices was conducted among private- and public-sector organisations with more than 50 employees. A cross-national sample of 60 Croatian and 51 Slovenian companies is analysed by applying a subsampling strategy and using inferential statistics methods.

Findings

The study clearly shows how particular structural decisions can foster the operational excellence of BPM initiatives. Formal process roles and specialised BPM units were recognised as important drivers of organisational success. In addition, how strategic support and related structural choices create a synergistic effect and make process efforts worthwhile is explained.

Practical implications

The research findings offer useful benchmarking of current BPM practices. The developed BPM commitment matrix represents a simple tool for self-assessment. Its path-dependent logic provides guidelines for improving the outcomes of BPM governance in general, and BPM initiatives specifically.

Originality/value

The paper extends previous research by showing the performance effects of several BPM governance practices. The results clearly suggest that the best outcomes of BPM initiatives were achieved by organisations that had introduced a strategic approach to BPM, along with having defined a centralised BPM responsibility and assigned decentralised process ownership roles.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 November 2019

Vahid Javidroozi, Hanifa Shah and Gerald Feldman

Enterprise systems integration (ESI) is necessary for today’s business environment to access real-time data and quickly respond to fluctuating market demand. business process…

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Abstract

Purpose

Enterprise systems integration (ESI) is necessary for today’s business environment to access real-time data and quickly respond to fluctuating market demand. business process change (BPC) as a significant prerequisite of ESI encompasses various challenges that must be tackled by employing success factors, techniques and approaches. The purpose of this paper is to focus on BPC challenges and develop a conceptual framework for addressing BPC challenges in ESI.

Design/methodology/approach

BPC challenges and their success factors were first identified through a literature analysis. Then, the findings from the literature were thematically analysed and qualitatively validated through 35 unstructured interviews for developing the conceptual framework.

Findings

The findings from the literature suggested 17 BPC challenge along with their success factors. During the validation process, 15 BPC challenges were accepted by all interviewees, while most of the respondents disagreed with the two challenges of “consolidation of information system re-engineering with BPR”, and “customization”. Moreover, “risk” was suggested as a BPC challenge by several interviewees. Thus, the study offered a modified list of BPC challenges, which was empirically validated.

Originality/value

The study proposes a conceptual framework for addressing BPC challenges in ESI that enables enterprises to design their systems integration roadmap, based on an understanding of BPC challenges and their success factors, as well as supporting solution providers to develop solutions for effective and efficient BPC. Furthermore, the framework will act as a basis for BPC and developing a similar framework for other related contexts, such as smart cities.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2023

Worachet Onngam and Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Despite the increasing numbers of research studies about social media business, the concept of social media agility is still an emerging topic that has been understudied…

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the increasing numbers of research studies about social media business, the concept of social media agility is still an emerging topic that has been understudied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of social media agility on business performance by using a sample of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand. Moreover, this study explored whether the effect of social media agility on business performance could be moderated by the characteristic of firm in terms of size, as well as the characteristic of market environment in terms of environmental dynamism.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample of 337 firms was obtained from the business directory using the simple random sampling method, and the model assessment was performed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The data analysis indicated that social media agility positively affected the business performance of SMEs. Moreover, the moderating effect analysis showed that smaller firms tended to gain higher business performance from social media agility than larger firms. In addition, social media agility positively affected business performance to a greater extent when firms operated under low environmental dynamism than when they operated under high environmental dynamism.

Practical implications

Because SMEs are the key driving of economic development and economic growth, the recommendations from this study could be helpful for the government sector responsible for the competency development of SMEs to offer a development program that might enable entrepreneurial firms to develop social media marketing competencies and enhance their potential to be successful in the digital transformation.

Originality/value

The authors found new evidence showing that the degree to which social media agility affected business performance depended significantly on the firm characteristics in terms of firm size, as well as the environmental factor in terms of environmental dynamism. These findings provide valuable contributions to the existing literature that still lacks evidence about the moderating conditions that could increase or reduce the benefits that firms obtain from social media agility.

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2006

Hajo A. Reijers

The presentation and validation of a checklist that can be used to determine an organization's process orientation prior to a business process management systems (BPMS…

6360

Abstract

Purpose

The presentation and validation of a checklist that can be used to determine an organization's process orientation prior to a business process management systems (BPMS) implementation. Its aim is to help predict the success of BPMS implementation on the basis of the identified process awareness within an organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The checklist has been developed on the basis of relevant literature and augmented with practical experience from staff of one of the world's largest BPM system vendors. The study of three BPM System implementations at different client sites have been used to validate the checklist.

Findings

The study suggests that a lack of process orientation may be related to all kinds of problems that affect the speed and cost of a BPMS implementation. The checklist seems useful to predict those problems at sites where process orientation is insufficient.

Research limitations/implications

The number of cases used (3) is quite small. Furthermore, the retrospective assessment of the situation prior to BPM system implementation limits the reliability of the findings. Current results seem a good basis for further refinement and validation.

Practical implications

A very practical, easy to use instrument that can directly be applied by organizations that are expected to be involved in multiple BPM system implementations (e.g. large banks, consultancies, system integrators, etc.).

Originality/value

This paper presents an instrument that does not yet exist to measure a relation often hypothesized upon in existing research.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2019

Marcus Fischer, Florian Imgrund, Christian Janiesch and Axel Winkelmann

Digital transformation has been changing the economic environment of enterprises in recent years. To remain competitive, they rely on an extensible software architecture, flexible…

Abstract

Purpose

Digital transformation has been changing the economic environment of enterprises in recent years. To remain competitive, they rely on an extensible software architecture, flexible workflow execution, and automated decision management. The concepts of service-oriented architectures (SOA), business process management (BPM), and business rules management (BRM) provide an adequate, yet isolated means of addressing many of these requirements. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adapts from established research frameworks to structure the current state of research on the integration of SOA, BPM and BRM. The authors highlight the current research scope, point to disregarded topics and sketch out multidisciplinary research approaches.

Findings

While the three concepts are often discussed only in isolation or pairwise, approaches that integrate them are scarce. Against this backdrop, this study defines three types of research opportunities and identifies several directions for future research that should be explored from a technological as well as organizational perspective. Given the breadth of open questions, the authors present sources for each area of our research framework, which can serve as starting points for future investigations.

Practical implications

Except for well-established support for separate tasks and technologies, there is a lack of integrated standards, methods and platforms, which for example enable integrated decision-making across BPM and SOA.

Originality/value

Our contribution builds on established frameworks and clearly shows that the discussion on the integration of SOA, BPM and BRM cannot yet be regarded as sufficient. The research agenda highlights which areas explicitly benefit from a more precise consideration.

Article
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Marek Szelągowski and Justyna Berniak-Woźny

The aim of this paper is to identify the main challenges and limitations of current business process management (BPM) development directions noticed by researchers, as well as to…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to identify the main challenges and limitations of current business process management (BPM) development directions noticed by researchers, as well as to define the areas of the main BPM paradigm shifts necessary for the BPM of tomorrow to meet the challenges posed by Industry 4.0 and the emerging Industry 5.0. This is extremely important from the perspective of eliminating the existing broadening gap between the considerations of academic researchers and the needs of business itself.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review was conducted on the basis of the resources of two digital databases: Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS. Based on the PRISMA protocol, the authors selected 29 papers published in the last decade that diagnosed the challenges and limitations of modern BPM and contained recommendations for its future development. The content of the articles was analyzed within four BPM core areas.

Findings

The authors of the selected articles most commonly point to the areas of organization (21 articles) and methods and information technology (IT) (22 articles) in the context of the challenges and limitations of current BPM and the directions of recommended future BPM development. This points to the prevalence among researchers of the perspective of Industry 4.0 – or focus on technological solutions and raising process efficiency, with the full exclusion or only the partial signalization of the influence of implementing new technologies on the stakeholders and in particular – employees, their roles and competencies – the key aspects of Industry 5.0.

Research limitations/implications

The proposal of BPM future development directions requires the extension of the BPM paradigm, taking into account its holistic nature, especially unpredictable, knowledge-intensive business processes requiring dynamic management, the need to integrate BPM with knowledge management (KM) and the requirements of Industry 5.0 in terms of organizational culture. The limitation is that the study is based on only two databases: WoS and SCOPUS and that the search has been narrowed down to publications in English only.

Practical implications

The proposal of BPM future development directions also requires the extension of the BPM paradigm, taking into account the specific challenges and limitations that managers encounter on a daily basis. The presented summaries of the challenges and limitations resulting from the literature review are accompanied by recommendations that are primarily dedicated to practitioners.

Social implications

The article indicates the area people and culture as one of the four core areas of BPM. It emphasizes the necessity to account to a greater degree for the influence of people, their knowledge, experience and engagement, as well as formal and informal communication, without which it is impossible to use the creativity, innovativeness and dynamism of the individual and the communities to create value in the course of business process execution.

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review of the literature on the limitations of modern BPM and its future in the context of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 24 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Article
Publication date: 13 April 2020

Mauricio Uriona Maldonado, Matheus Eduardo Leusin, Thiago Carrano de Albuquerque Bernardes and Caroline Rodrigues Vaz

Business process management (BPM) and lean management (LM) are both recognized for improving organizational performance through continuous improvement, yet their similarities and…

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Abstract

Purpose

Business process management (BPM) and lean management (LM) are both recognized for improving organizational performance through continuous improvement, yet their similarities and differences have been poorly discussed so far. This paper aims to find their main differences and similarities using a systematic method for literature review.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a structured literature review known as SYSMAP (Scientometric and sYStematic yielding MApping Process). The method integrates bibliometrics and content analysis procedures to perform in-depth analysis of the literature at hand.

Findings

Both methodologies seek continuous improvement with focus on the customer and process standardization, but they are divergent mainly in relation to the flow they intend to improve. The impossibility of implementing both methodologies in an effective way was also observed, mainly due to the differences they present in relation to how to achieve the continuous improvement cycle.

Research limitations/implications

As any other literature reviews, the major limitation is to have omitted relevant literature even though all available procedures have been used to avoid this situation.

Practical implications

This paper offers a novel perspective from the practitioner side. LM may be better used in human-intensive process improvement whereas BPM in technology-intensive ones. Such characteristics open up new opportunities for practitioners aiming at integrating both approaches.

Originality/value

This is the first paper that systematically analyses the body of literature of BPM and LM with the means to better understand their similarities and differences.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 26 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

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