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In recent years, the robotic process automation (RPA) technology has increasingly been used to automate business processes. While a lot of research has been published on the potential and benefits of the technology, only a few studies have conducted research on challenges related to RPA adoption. Hence, this study aims to identify and discuss challenges related to RPA implementation projects.

Following an inductive methodology, interviews have been conducted with consultants who were involved in multiple RPA implementation projects. Hence, their extensive experience and views contribute to a detailed and in-depth understanding of the phenomena under research.

The results suggest that there are various process-related, technical, resource-related, psychological and coordinative challenges that must be considered when conducting an RPA implementation project.

This paper contributes to knowledge by presenting a new typology of challenges, as well as providing an in-depth discussion of the individual challenges that organizations face.

Research of currently limited literature sees Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as an important tool at the tactical level. However, the literature has not considered its potential contribution to creating competitive advantages. This paper aims to link RPA and Resource-based view (RBV) literature, proposing a conceptual framework boosting RPA research as part of an organizational AI strategy.

This study applied a Systematic Literature Review (SRL), combining bibliometrics and content analysis. This study also built a new framework based on the updated RBV model that was transformed based on the RPA literature review results.

By bridging the two bodies of literature on RBV and RPA, this study manages to show the strategic side of the technology. Therefore, this study brought to light the most updated fundamental concepts of complementarity and scale-free fungible resources from RBV theory and AI technologies, applied to the domains of RPA, information systems and information technology (IS/IT) through the development of a new theoretical lens. Also, this study was able to elaborate on a new conceptual framework for AI strategy formulation to help organizations on their journey to AI utilization.

The authors did not find any research that has shown the strategic side of RPA, nor any that has used a theoretical lens based on the RBV theory to show this side. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study seems to be the first to make the case for RPA's strategic potential.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a digital transformation tool that demonstrated tremendous growth in research output as well as its application in the past decade. This study attempts to identify essential research gaps and proposes future research agendas in the field by analyzing publishing trends, major stakeholders (authors, countries, affiliations, journals), key clusters and evolving themes by mapping the most recent research (2016–2022) in the field.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used to retrieve a total of 244 publications from the Web of Science (WOS) database for this analysis. The study then uses the open-source R program bibliometrix to conduct bibliometric analysis. A variety of tools and methods including collaboration network, word dynamics, co-occurrence network, thematic map and strategy map were utilized.

The analysis reveals the most influential stakeholders (country: the USA, author: Arai K, affiliation: Christ Deemed University), main clusters of intellectual structure (process mining, digital transformation, blockchain, information systems) and the evolution of themes (model innovation, artificial intelligence, big-data, design science and user acceptance) in the subject.

This study uses bibliometric analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of RPA literature which unravels the conceptual structure of the stream and proposes a research agenda for the future. Based on the growth of themes and the strategy map, this study may assist entrepreneurs and practitioners in determining field priorities for strategizing process innovation.