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The purpose of this paper is to develop a critique of value sensitive design (VSD) and to propose an alternative approach that does not depart from a heuristic of value(s), but from virtue ethics, called virtuous practice design (VPD).

This paper develops a philosophical argument, draws from a philosophical method (i.e. virtue ethics) and applies this method to a particular case study that draws from a narrative interview.

In this paper, authors show how an approach that takes virtue instead of value as the central notion for aiming at a design that is sensitive to ethical concerns can be fruitful both in theory and in practice.

This paper presents the first attempt to ground an approach aimed at ethical technology design on the tradition of virtue ethics. As such, it presents VPD as a potentially fruitful alternative to VSD.

Microfoundational research increasingly strives to examine the interlinkages between various higher- and lower-level structures. To better capture microfounded change processes, I develop the multi-dimensional concept of institutional entrepreneurs’ skills that defines actors’ abilities to enhance institutional change. By a systematic literature review on institutional entrepreneurship, I identify seven institutional entrepreneurs’ skill dimensions: (i) analytical skills, (ii) empathic skills, (iii) framing skills, (iv) translational skills, (v) organizational skills, (vi) tactical skills, and (vii) timing skills. The established concept provides opportunities for future microfoundational research by examining the formation and the application of the seven skill dimensions.

In an exploratory approach, the authors conducted a structured literature review to extract candidate process digitalization project (PDP) success factors (SFs) from the literature on business process management (BPM), project management (PM) and digitalization. After that, the authors validated, refined and extended these intermediate results through interviews with 21 members of diverse PDP teams. Finally, the authors proposed the PDP success model by linking the candidate SFs with relevant success criteria.

Digitalization substantially impacts organizations, which increasingly use digital technologies (DTs) to improve and innovate their business processes. While there are methods and tools for identifying process digitalization ideas and related projects (PDPs), guidance on the successful implementation of PDPs is missing. Hence, the authors set out to explore PDP SFs.

The PDP success model covers 38 PDP success factor candidates, whereof 28 are already backed by the literature and ten have emerged during the interviews. Furthermore, the SFs are structured according to seven categories from the literature covering a broad range of sociotechnical topics (i.e. strategy, structure, culture, people, process, project and technology) as well as equipped with preliminary success rationales.

The work is the first to systematically explore PDP SFs. The PDP success model shows that PDPs require a unique set of SFs, which combine established and hitherto underrepresented knowledge. It extends the knowledge on BPM and serves as foundation for future (confirmatory) research on business process digitalization and the successful implementation of PDPs.

Process improvement is a fundamental activity of the business process management (BPM) lifecycle. However, practitioners still lack concrete guidance and adequate objectives for process improvement. Moreover, improvement projects typically tie up considerable amounts of capital and are very risky. Thus, more guidance is needed on how to derive concrete recommendations for process improvement in a goal-oriented manner. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors propose a decision model that determines along which paths the instances of a process should be routed to maximize the value contribution of the process. To do so, the decision model requires a process model and a set of historical process instances as inputs.

The decision model builds on the idea that only the parameters of the process, i.e., the values according to which it is decided on which path an instance traverses the process, can be modified, without altering the structure of the process. The decision model determines the parameter setting that maximizes the value contribution of the process, which is measured in terms of the expected cash flow of the process. When determining the optimal parameter setting, the decision model considers that different instances and paths have different cash flow effects.

The authors prototypically implemented the decision model and report on the insights from a demonstration example that is based on the order verification process of an IT distributor.

The decision model complements existing approaches to process improvement as it reveals additional improvement potential by focussing on the decision points in a process without altering the structure of the process. The decision model also enables identifying an optimal parameter setting, as a concrete recommendation for process improvement, in line with the principles of value-based BPM.

Despite an obvious connection, business process improvement and business process management (BPM) capability development have been studied intensely, but in isolation. The authors thus aim to make the case for the research located at the intersection of both streams. The authors thereby focus on the integrated planning of business process improvement and BPM capability development as this is where, in the authors’ opinion, both streams have the closest interaction. The authors refer to the research field located at the intersection of business process improvement and BPM capability development as process project portfolio management. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors structure the field of process project portfolio management drawing from extant knowledge related to BPM, project portfolio management, and performance management. The authors also propose a research agenda in terms of exemplary research questions and research methods.

The proposed structure shows which business objects and interactions should be considered when engaging in process project portfolio management. The research agenda contains exemplary questions structured along the intersections of BPM, project portfolio management, and performance management.

This paper’s main limitation is that it reflects the authors’ individual viewpoints based on experiences of several industry projects and prior research.

This paper addresses a neglected research field, opens up new avenues for interdisciplinary BPM research, and contributes a novel perspective to the ongoing discussion about the future of BPM.

Digitalization is affecting business management and pushing for new strategies, innovative products, new ways to communicate with stakeholders and new channels. This phenomenon is unavoidable, and companies have to face it in a holistic and integrated way. One holistic and interconnected approach, when studying enterprise challenges, is represented by the business process management method, a fitting mechanism when digitalization needs to be amalgamated in business practices, enhancing the intellectual capital (IC), therefore, this study researches digitalization under business process lens, in a sample of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), that constitute an under-explored set, as regard digitalization, process management and IC. The research aims to explore the digital tools and business processes link and the related impact on performance, benefits and IC.

In exploring digitalization, a sample of Italian SMEs was scrutinized. The data were elaborated using two types of tests: (1) the binomial tests for the categorical questions and (2) the zeta test was used for quantitative variables. Furthermore, the partial least square (PLS)-SEM model was applied.

Findings reveal that some digital tools are more adopted in the sample analysed, and also some particular digital tools are more inclined to support certain business processes. Furthermore, not only performance benefits emerge, but also benefits in terms of better communication and faster decisions, supporting the decision making process of managers, also considering that business processes approach is one way to manage IC.

Thanks to the conducted research it is possible to make aware managers and owners of SMEs to consciously choose the right type of digitalization investments, without neglecting training programme, to realize the company digital transformation, providing a map and bearing in mind the value added creation, protecting their IC.

The paper's originality is represented by the contribution in opening the black box about digitalization, business process management and IC in small and medium companies.

Financial information about costs and return on investments are of key importance to strategic decision making but also in the context of process improvement or business engineering. The purpose of this paper is to propose a value‐oriented approach to business process modeling based on key concepts and metrics from operations and financial management, to aid decision making in process re‐design projects on the basis of process models.

The paper suggests a theoretically founded extension to current process modeling approaches, and delineates a framework as well as methodical support to incorporate financial information into process re‐design. The paper uses two case studies to evaluate the suggested approach.

Based on two case studies, the paper shows that the value‐oriented process modeling approach facilitates and improves managerial decision making in the context of process re‐design.

The paper presents design work and two case studies. More research is needed to more thoroughly evaluate the presented approach in a variety of real‐life process modeling settings.

The paper shows how the approach enables decision makers to make investment decisions in process re‐design projects, and also how other decisions, for instance in the context of enterprise architecture design, can be facilitated.

This paper reports on an attempt to integrate financial considerations into the act of process modeling, in order to provide more comprehensive decision‐making support in process re‐design projects.