Business Process Management Perspective Research Articles

The cooperation of multiple actors within process models: an automated planning approach

ABSTRACTIn many business processes, multiple actors such as different employees, departments or companies are involved. These actors need to work together and form appropriate partnerships in parts of these processes to achieve their individual goals. Hence, from a Business Process Management perspective, the actors need to cooperate. We present a conceptual foundation for multi-actor process models, which enables the consideration of individual starting points and goals as well as partnerships. Further, we incorporate the cooperation of actors in the control flow of process models by constructing explicit actions determining where in the process to form and disband partnerships. We pursue an automated planning approach due to the complexity of the required cooperation. The constructed multi-actor process models are proven to be correct and complete. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by an application in several real-world scenarios and its effectiveness through the assessment of a practitioner.

Capital structure and business process management: evidence from ambidextrous organizations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between capital structure and business process management (BPM) within ambidextrous firms. In particular, referring to the listed companies in the Mercato Telematico Azionario (MTA) and Mercato degli Investment Vehicles (MIV) markets with large- and mid-sized capitalization, divided into ambidextrous and non-ambidextrous companies, the authors examined the capital structure to fill a gap in the current literature.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed-method sequential exploratory design. In particular, a qualitative study was conducted to identify some Italian-listed companies, called ambidextrous firms, which have implemented incremental (exploitative) and radical (explorative) innovations in an ambidexterity perspective of process management. A quantitative study was designed to provide insights into the different degrees of leverage of the listed companies selected by the qualitative analysis.FindingsThe research is based on an empirical analysis undertaken with 69 companies listed on Italian markets (starting from the MTA and MIV Italy 100 – large- and mid-sized capitalization). In particular, the authors highlight 11 companies that, based on the literature, can be defined as ambidextrous organizations. These firms, in each year analyzed (2014, 2015, and 2016), have more leverage than non-ambidextrous ones. Considering that firms today need to constantly revisit their portfolio of debt and equity, ambidextrous organizations could evaluate the largest debt available in order to implement new BPM tools.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first exploratory study based on capital structure and the simultaneous exploration and exploitation of knowledge (ambidexterity) that also is informed by a BPM perspective. The paper presents evidence from Italian-listed companies that are referred to as ambidextrous and have different degrees of leverage.

Contribution of Privacy by Design (of the Processes)

Privacy by design (PbD) will soon be a compulsory requirement for firms processing personal data. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), a new Act in the EU establishes compulsory fulfillment for firms located in the European Union from May 2018. By considering that PbD philosophy leads to protect personal data, it is proposed to start the protection from the design of business activities. Privacy from the business process management perspective has barely been studied. In this paper a group of organizational mechanisms oriented to implement protection measures based on privacy by design are provided. Based on the analysis of 18 surveys done to privacy by design and data security experts, some recommendations are offered. They are based in the analysis of strengths, weakness, opportunities and threads envisioned by the different experts.

Innovative Consistency in Organisations – Business Process Management Perspective

International Journal of Contemporary Management » 2017 » Issue 16(3) » Innovative Consistency in Organisations – Business Process Management Perspective A A A

Business process management: a maturity assessment of Saudi Arabian organizations

Purpose – Business Process Management (BPM) has become increasingly common among organizations in different industries. There is very limited research on the application of BPM in the MENA region and particularly in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical maturity assessment for selected Saudi Arabian organizations from broad range of industries. Findings showed that there is notable variability of BPM perception within the functional groups of the sample organizations. Organizations with holistic business strategy and resilient change management procedures showed more adherence to BPM practices than those with functionally driven or ad-hoc BPM initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – In this empirical study, structured interviews were undertaken with selected business functions owners from ten Saudi organizations. All selected organizations resides in the city of Riyadh with most of them having local and regional branches. The selection of the organization followed non-probability sampling technique whereby the selected organizations were those seemed easy to access and showed willingness to participate in the research. The sample organizations included different types of businesses in different industries. Even though the purpose of the study is not applicable to a particular industry type or sector, variety of business domains and variability in organizations size were considered in the selection process. Table 1 shows an overview of the organization business sector. Findings – This research investigates the current status of BPM implementation among Saudi Arabian organizations. Although there is positive favour towards BPM concepts among Saudi organizations, it seems that the practical understanding of BPM is yet to be matured. One of the noticed findings from the survey is the apparent sharp disjoint between information technology (IT) and business strategy. This segregation, from a BPM perspective, created two variants of BPM understanding; a business variant related to designing and managing business operations, and the IT one which focusses on configuring and installing BPM systems. There is a lack of a holistic view of business processes and its associated activities within an organization. Most surveyed organizations have either no clear business strategy or it is too complicated the thing that make it difficult to integrate it with BPM initiatives. Some organizations have no defined process owners for their main core business processes neither there are measurable goals for their performance. Their main BPM endeavour is mainly focused on the process activities rather than the process output and performance. Originality/value – This is the first research paper that provides empirical research on the status of BPM in the MENA region and particularly in Saudi Arabia.

Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: A Business Process Management Perspective

The Tohoku Regional Bureau (TRB) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) performed various actions in response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The total disaster recovery and reconstruction period is expected to last for 10 years, of which the first five years are regarded as the concentrated reconstruction period. As of 2013, a majority of the mega projects that involved restoration actions have been completed, which indicates a more effective rate of completion compared with the MLIT projects performed in normal non-disaster situations. This short article explains the management process of the recovery and reconstruction utilized by the TRB—an inter-organizational process—from a business process management (BPM) perspective and creates a simple organization construction diagram of the entire process. The study focused on the transactions and actor roles to identify their strengths. The findings indicate the utilization of different operational procedures in some parts of the process, the importance of liaison role, as well as some obstacles. The lessons learned from this analysis can assist managers and researchers in designing and managing restoration processes for future disasters.

Cloud-Based Collaborative Decision Making

The complexity of many decision problems of today’s globalized world requires new innovative solutions that are built upon proven decision support technology and also recent advancements in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) such as Cloud Computing and Mobile Communication. A combination of the cost-effective Cloud Computing approach with extended group decision support system technology bears several interesting unprecedented opportunities for the development of such solutions. These opportunities include ubiquitous accessibility to decision support software and, thus, the possibility to flexibly involve remote experts in group decision processes, guided access to background information, and facilitation support to direct group decision processes. The architects of such future solutions are challenged by numerous requirements that need to be considered and reflected in an integrated architectural approach. This article presents a thorough analysis of major design considerations for software solutions for collaborative decision making from a broad range of perspectives especially including the business process management perspective and the Cloud Computing perspective. The proposed architectural approach of the GRUPO-MOD system demonstrates how one can address the requirements in one integrated system architecture that supports different deployment options of Cloud Computing. A refinement of the high-level system architecture into a corresponding implementation architecture that builds on widely adopted standards such as OSGi and industry proven technology such as the Eclipse platform is also given in the article.