Process Management Perspective Research Articles

Green business process management in a Polish municipal waste treatment plant-regional case study

Despite COVID-19, the world economy still contributes to the growth of production and consumption worldwide. Waste disposal, recycling management and energy generation are challenges for many companies in developing economies, including Poland. This article aims to assess the operation of a municipal waste treatment plant (MWTP) from the perspective of green business process management (BMP) solutions. The processes implemented in the MWTP were discussed, with specific consideration of the mechanical waste processing (sorting) process, including the reuse and recycling of materials, composting, energy production (anaerobic process), landfill storage and efficiency parameters of the sorting line. A sustainable waste management system was identified; the cost as well as social and environmental perspectives were analyzed. Also, strategic goals and key performance indicators were considered. The performed analysis included costs, environmental criteria and key environmental indicators. This paper has shown the successful implementation of green BPM, with potential cost and material savings results. The findings of this case study are expected to inspire other waste management companies to adopt green BPM. The presented case study might help raise awareness and promote the implementation of green BPM in municipal plants in Eastern and Southern Europe.

Managerial and Organizational Implications Arising from the Implementation of Blockchain Technology in Supply Chains: An AS-IS and To-Be Analysis

Purpose: The main objective of this research is to highlight the managerial and organizational implications for businesses resulting from the implementation of blockchain logic and technologies. The functionalities of blockchain technologies are compared with the traditional approach to supply chain management to emphasize the impact they can have on managing intra-supply chain relationships and the organizational structure of companies involved in supply channels. Design/methodology/approach: To conduct this study, a conceptual study was carried out, starting from an analysis of the main characteristics of blockchain technologies, to build an AS-IS scenario compared with the TO-BE scenario resulting from the implementation of these technologies within supply chains. To conduct this study, conceptual categories of the viable system approach and process management perspective were utilized. The conceptual analysis was performed using a matrix representation, which correlates material, informational, and financial flows with the dimensions of traceability, transparency, and efficiency, before and after the implementation of blockchains in managing supply chain transactions. Findings: The study highlighted how the principles underlying blockchain can lead to overcoming the traditional indispensable search for trust among supply chain operators. Therefore, through these results, it is possible to hypothesize an improvement in the resilience conditions of companies operating in block–supply chains. Originality/value: This study contributes to investigating the relationship between blockchain and operational consonance among operators in managing interorganizational processes to improve conditions of efficiency, traceability, and transparency, which are functional in the resilience of companies involved in the supply chain compared to the changing dynamics of the context. Research implications: Trustless logic in the implementation of blockchain technologies leads to the configuration of a new concept of trust, connected to the entire supply chain system, as a result of the improvement in the security, visibility, and efficiency conditions of transactions. The increased visibility and transparency developed in block–supply chains prompt all actors involved in the supply chains to rethink information management, given the reduction in informational asymmetries and, thus, the optimization of transaction costs.

How E-learning Is Correlated with Competitiveness and Innovation and Critical Success Factors

E-learning has gained a prominent role in the education scenario, either because of its capacity for extraterritorial coverage, or because of the scale it offers for free and academic courses. How e-learning is being managed and identifying opportunities for improvement in this process is a challenge for managers. A systematic review of the literature on e-learning was carried out from the perspective of process management. The Scimat and VOSviewer software were used together to make it possible to understand the volume of publications, terms, density, and perspectives of studies on the subject on the indexing platforms, as well as pointing out challenges and trends in the area. The term e-learning does not appear as a trend driver in published articles. When related to the terms critical success factors (CSFs) and competitiveness and innovation, the greatest concentration of articles is directed to the e-learning infrastructure or technologies applied to it. As a result, it is possible to observe that the co-occurrence of e-learning with critical success factors and competitiveness and innovation is in its early stages, with scarce research in this area indicating room for future growth. E-learning entails unique business metrics that require specific tools and knowledge of technology, concepts, and the organizational environment. However, there is a dearth of publications addressing these aspects and proposing relevant methodologies and processes.

Socio-economic management theory related to BPM

This research claims that dynamic strategies demanded by today’s digital environment exacerbate inconsistency between an organization’s digital transformation efforts and its enterprise architecture (EA) planning process. This phenomenon leads to redundant investments, delayed implementation, and frequent failures in digital transformation projects. In order to investigate this inconsistency, we apply the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) theory. Through critical analysis of four case studies in a large manufacturing organization, we clarify the relationship between digital transformation and EA and reveal the dysfunction in strategic implementation from a SEAM and business process management (BPM) perspective. In practice, this research integrates digital transformation and EA to provide a context-specific approach for planning and designing enterprise digital transformation strategies.

How does intelligent manufacturing reconcile the conflict between process standards and technological innovation?

Understanding whether process standards foster or hinder technological innovation lacks consensus in the literatures. From the process management perspective, this study aimes at exploring the mechanisms underlying this relationship under a specific situation of intelligent manufacturing. By analyzing interview data from four case companies in the environmental instrument industry in China and secondary data at the firm level, we find that (i) process standards have a positive effect on technological innovation and (ii) process standards in companies with relatively high levels of intelligent manufacturing raise technological innovation. In particular, these four companies are differentiated with respect to intelligent manufacturing context: two companies with relatively high levels of intelligent manufacturing; and the other two with relatively low levels of intelligent manufacturing. Based on the case analysis, we find that there is an open logic, tightening both internal and external communication linkages, between process standards and technological innovation, so process standards positively affect technological innovation. Further, we find that for those with a higher level of intelligent manufacturing, firms typically benefit more organizational learning competency, which enhances the impact of process standards on technological innovation. The findings are also confirmed by a post hoc survey. Above all, this study contributes to the literatures on process management and technological innovation as well as the new trend of intelligent manufacturing in Industry 4.0.

Connections between Governance and Business Process Management – BPM

We researched governance from the perspective of Business Process Management – BPM. From the understanding of process management as a practice that aims to register organizational knowledge, BPM can be seen as a valuable tool for governance. The BPM uses methodologies of analysis and redesign of processes to represent and translate organizational objectives and strategies to add value to clients. This article presents a systematic mapping of scientific papers published between 2011 and 2021 through the data collected in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The co-occurrence of keywords allowed identifying research subareas such as the public sector, technology, and strategic management. The analysis of the evolution of the publications revealed that the theme is still growing; however, we did not find many articles contemplating the connection between the two constructs simultaneously. We concluded that despite the results found, the concepts of both constructs consider common elements as value generation, demonstrating that there is room for new approaches to analyze the evolution of the theme and possibilities of further research.

Experience and Knowledge in the Learning Process Management Perspective in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Technological progress is something that cannot be avoided in this life, because technological progress will run in accordance with scientific advances. This cannot be separated from the role of education. Thus, as a very important component for humans in living life and social interaction, of course education needs to be carried out consciously and planned, both by stakeholders and education providers, especially teachers and lecturers. Education must continue in any form and condition, as long as the activities of human life in social interaction continue. This condition will certainly also occur during the Covid-19 pandemic. All education providers are required to act more quickly in responding to the existing conditions. Perceptions about the length of interaction with the implementation of education (experience), especially for teachers and lecturers are not the main benchmark for ensuring the success of managing the learning process during the Covid-19 pandemic. A wise effort is to make peace with any conditions and respond wisely to the existing conditions so that wisdom and humility will emerge. In the end, education providers, especially teachers and lecturers, will try to collaborate between experience and knowledge.

Research on Logistics Carbon Emission Mathematical Estimation and Compensation by Computer Statistics and Data Analysis

Global warming is one of the most serious environmental problems facing human society. Greenhouse gases represented by CO2 are considered to be an important cause of climate change. The development of human society is the main reason for the generation of CO2. Economic development and population growth make the use area of fossil fuels continue to expand, which is an important factor leading to the increase of CO2 emissions. The logistics industry is developing rapidly. Its development not only brings value-added economic benefits, but also increases CO2 emissions, and the carbon emission of the logistics industry has gradually become one of the hotspots of attention. Based on the previous theories on carbon emission, this paper determines the research on carbon emission estimation and carbon compensation in the operation of logistics industry, and estimates the carbon emission of logistics industry around the official statistical yearbook data and survey data. Finally, this paper further improves the carbon compensation mechanism of logistics industry from the perspective of compensation subject, compensation standard, compensation mode, process management and carbon price formulation, and puts forward the corresponding measures of carbon compensation mechanism from the perspectives of planning, management, technology, market and publicity.

Exploring stakeholders and their requirements in the process of home hemodialysis: A literature review.

Providing home hemodialysis (HHD) therapy is a complex process that not only requires the use of a complex technology but also involves a diverse group of stakeholders, and each stakeholder has their requirements and may not share a common interest. Bringing them together will require the alignment of their interests. A process management perspective can help to accomplish the alignment of their interests. To align their interests, it is crucial to identify interest groups and understand their interests. The main objective of this paper is to identify the stakeholders and represents their interests as a list of requirements in the HHD process. An extensive literature review has been carried out and PubMed was used for literature extraction. In total, 1848 articles were retrieved of which 80 have fulfilled the inclusion criteria. A large array of actors is identified and their interests/requirements at different stages of the HHD process are represented in the form of a list. They have both common and conflicting requirements in the HHD process. If these requirements are aligned and balanced, a stakeholder's driven treatment process will be developed and a real improvement will be achieved in the treatment process.

Actors’ interaction, process management and complex decision-making in public-private partnership

Government of Bangladesh has been encouraging Public-Private Partnership (PPP) since 1990s for engaging private investment in infrastructure development and service delivery. However, in implementing PPP policy in Bangladesh, it has been observed that performance in one PPP differs from another PPP. Considering it as policy implementation deficit, this study looks policy performance through the lens of actors’ interaction, process management and complex decision-making perspective with the following research question: How far actors’ interaction, consensus building and complex decision making in PPP policy implementation can explain policy performance? The question is answered following network management and complex decision-making theoretical approach. Qualitative research method and case study strategy with two cases is considered for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 key respondents. For analyzing case study data, within-case analysis and cross-case synthesis have been adopted. The findings uphold the view that at implementation phase, actors’ willingness to compromise, issue solving, resolving dispute, positive decision and positive attitude towards PPP, are vital for actors’ satisfaction. Therefore, study findings contribute to knowledge by confirming network management and complex decision making as useful in explaining PPP policy performance in Bangladesh.

Using Analytical Hierarchy Process Methods in Cash Holding and Corporate Working Capital Management: an Asian Perspective

Cash holding behavior is an important financial behavior of the company, which reflects the company's financial strategy and management strategy. What are the factors that affect corporate cash holdings? How does the change in these factors affect the change in corporate cash holdings? Starting from two aspects of national macroeconomic environmental factors and microeconomic environmental factors, this paper tries to analyze these factors and how they affect corporate cash holdings. Working Capital Management is an important part of the company's financial management, which is closely related to the value creation of the company. What is the content of working capital management? How to manage the working capital effectively? This paper expounds the contents of working capital management from the perspective of process management, and expounds how to effectively manage working capital from the perspective of situational management. To link these two areas ids the goal of this study.

Reengineering the Romanian Timber Supply Chain from a Process Management Perspective

Implementation of process management in the forest supply chains has a great potential for organizational and managerial improvement, at least by resource saving. Nevertheless, techniques of process management have been scarcely used to improve the forest supply chains in many parts of the world. In this study, for both Romanian state and private forests, the processes of the timber supply chain – from the harvest site to the forest-based industry plant – are mapped and analyzed. The main objectives of this work were to identify process optimization potentials and to redesign processes in order to improve the performance of the Romanian timber supply chain. Results show that particularly inter-organizational processes offer great saving potentials, mainly due to the existing multi-level hierarchy and multi-level control obligations. Therefore, introducing a web-based platform to enhance a collaborative workflow can considerably decrease the time needed for providing harvest sites or logs to customers via auctions. Further process optimization can be reached by the empowerment of lower level hierarchies facilitating the reduction of hierarchy levels of involved state organizations.

Investigating the environmental antecedents of organizations’ intention to adopt agile software development

PurposeAgile software development (ASD) has emerged as an active research area due to its enormous growth in popularity. The innovative differences between ASD and traditional development include the use of fundamentally different procedures, organizational structures and people, yet organizations still attempt to embrace ASD. Apparently, the underlying factors arousing organizations’ intent to adopt ASD are not well known and have not been well explained in the extant literature. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap for which the authors propose a conceptual framework based on the business process management (BPM) perspective to identify the environmental stimuli that affect an organization’s ASD adoption.Design/methodology/approachProposition for a methodology approach is used to construct a theoretical framework based on existing literature and theories in BPM.FindingsThe framework recognizes external and internal environmental stimuli, including institutional isomorphic forces and interior enablers, such as top management championship, the culture type and resource readiness, which affect organizational ASD adoption decisions.Originality/valueThis paper consolidates both the internal and external environmental aspects of the stimuli that lead to ASD adoption and offers insight into creating a suitable context for ASD adoption.

When success is an orphan: informal institutional governance and the EU–Turkey deal

This article traces the role of the EU institutions in the process leading up to the EU–Turkey Action Plan and EU–Turkey Statement. The EU–Turkey deal is the proverbial ‘orphan’ in EU crises management, with none of the key actors and institutions eager to claim ownership. Yet when judged from the perspective of process management, the deal resulted from effective inter-institutional collaboration, which stands in stark contrast to the EU’s handling of the relocation schemes or the Dublin reform. Using insights from the informal governance literature, the article maps the inter-institutional network that managed this process, traces the activities within the network, and determines the effects these had on the final outcome. On an analytical level, the mechanism contains five key elements of informal institutional governance: linking, bridging, shielding, laying out the tracks and creative fixes. The conclusion reflects on the wider applicability and scope conditions of this mechanism.

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

Operations strategy: a firm boundary-based perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to advance a firm boundary perspective of operations strategy linking strategic management and business process management.Design/methodology/approachRelevant operations strategy, business process management and boundary perspective literature is reviewed and critically assessed in order to advance a firm boundary-based approach to operations strategy. Within this perspective, a multi-disciplinary and cross-functional framework is provided with the objective of supporting the process of operations strategy formulation and implementation.FindingsThe boundary perspective has the potential to inform a wide range of operations strategies. Strategic management of operations should be increasingly based on boundary operations. The proposed framework clarifies that the adoption of a spanning boundary perspective should improve the operations strategy process and content.Practical implicationsThis paper offers implications of interest to managers, noting that the adoption of a new perspective in operations strategy should contribute to innovation in operations strategy development and implementation. Specifically, the framework suggests models and tools useful to support the spanning boundary perspective.Originality/valueThis paper allows operations and process management scholars to focus on key phenomena, such as boundary management. At the same time, the framework responds to the needs of managers who are engaged in operations management for a new perspective that can assist in the strategic management of operations.

Improving data collection processes for routine evaluation of treatment cost-effectiveness.

The healthcare system in Finland has begun routine collection of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) information for patients in hospitals to support more systematic cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). This article describes the systematic collection of HRQoL survey data, and addresses challenges in the implementation of patient surveys and acquisition of cost data in the case hospital. Challenges include problems with incomplete data and undefined management processes. In order to support CEA of hospital treatments, improvements are sought from the process management literature and in the observation of healthcare professionals. The article has been written from an information system and process management perspective, concluding that process ownership, automation of data collection and better staff training are keys to generating more reliable data.