The Impact of Business Process Complexity on Business Process Standardization - An Empirical Study

Today’s organizations are struggling with increasing business process complexity and face serious problems when standardizing business processes. A possible strategy seems to be to enhance standardization efforts in order to ensure standardization success. In this paper, we analyze the triangle relationship between standardization effort, business process complexity, and business process standardization. We test the hypotheses that higher business process complexity is related to higher standardization effort and lower business process standardization as well as that higher standardization effort is related to higher business process standardization. We report on the development and testing of a conceptual model that allows to understand the impact of business process complexity on business process standardization and standardization effort. Findings from a survey among 255 business process management experts are used to evaluate our hypotheses. Our results suggest that business process complexity has to be considered as an important driver of standardization effort and constrains business process standardization. Moreover, we show that higher standardization effort cannot compensate for higher business process complexity to ensure business process standardization

Towards an Understanding of the Business Value of Business Process Standardization - A Case Study Approach

What is the business value of process standardization? Alongside the development of industrial engineering of information technology and of business process redesign studied by Davenport and Short (1990), and Davenport’s approach defining business processes (Davenport, 2005), other researchers offer initial insights into business process standardization research opportunities (Venkatesh, 2006). Based on this new thinking about business process standardization, this paper presents a step towards understanding the business value of business process standardization. A single case study with a global operating company was conducted to show how a successful standardized business process and a supporting information system can impact the process performance in terms of cost, time and quality. The process studied within the case study is the company-wide recruiting process. As the results indicate, the company has improved the overall process performance. The results provide an initial insight into an understanding of the business value of process standardization

Evaluation of Business Processes for Business Process Standardization

Companies often implement multiple process variants in their organizations at the same time. Often these variants differ widely in terms of efficiency, quality and cycle time. In times of highly volatile global economic markets, companies cannot afford unnecessary redundant business processes. Business Process Standardization has therefore become a major topic in the field of Business Process Management, both in research and practice. Management decisions concerning standardization are difficult and complex, due to limited project budgets, organizational and technological changes as well as the increasing challenges of globalization. Choosing suitable processes for standardization is the essential precondition for streamlining business processes in the first place and therefore for reaping the full benefits of Business Process Standardization. However, there is hardly any tool available that supports the evaluation of business processes for standardization. To close this research gap, we develop an instrument for the evaluation of business processes in the context of Business Process Standardization with the aim to help practitioners in their day-to-day operations. Our research aims at providing the necessary preconditions for companies to profit from the advantages of business process standardization and to support decision-making

“TO STANDARDIZE OR NOT TO STANDARDIZE?” - UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECT OF BUSINESS PROCESS COMPLEXITY ON BUSINESS PROCESS STANDARDIZATION

Today, practitioners often have to face a number of challenges during the standardization of business processes, and some processes can be standardized easier (with less effort) than others. Our previous research has shown that major drivers of successful business process standardization are the characteristics respectively the complexity of a particular business process. In order to minimize standardization effort, we need an instrument that allows identifying processes which are appropriate for standardization by assessing each process’ individual degree of complexity. On the way towards such an instrument, the first step is to develop an understanding of how the complexity of a business process affects its standardization. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is twofold: First, we provide a research model representing the fundamental relationships between our main constructs standardization effort, process complexity, and process standardization. Second, we report on the development of valid measurement scales designed to measure these constructs

What drives business process standardization? A case study approach

Business process standardization is of growing importance for both researchers and practitioners alike. Corporate experts and process owners meanwhile consider business process standards to be a prime action item and major instrument in a firm\u27s BPM toolkit. An increasing number of scientific publications also show a growing interest of the scientific community. But to date IS research on business process standardization most notably is focused on the impact of business process standardization on business process performance abstracting away from a concise analysis of their antecedents. Therefore in this paper – based on an exploratory case study from healthcare industry – we provide a research model presenting three major antecedents of business process standardization: Top management support, involvement of the HR-, business- and IT departments and organizational governance/topology. As this approach is conceptual in nature future research should empirically evaluate our framework

An empirical evaluation of the impact of process standardization on process performance and flexibility

This paper argues that business process standardization, as part of BPM activities, is an effective way to improve business process flexibility and performance. We develop and empirically evaluate a theoretical model of the differential impact of business process homogenization and optimization on business process flexibility and performance. The analysis based on data from 85 large firms shows a strong and highly significant influence of process standardization on business process flexibility and performance. This paper is among the first to propose a research model and empirical operationalization to analyze the twofold impact of process standardization on business process flexibility and performance. For practitioners the paper provides actionable recommendations on how to apply the findings to their management context

Factors that Determine the Extent of Business Process Standardization and the Subsequent Effect on Business Performance

Business process standardization is the activity of unifying different variants of a family of business processes. While the positive effects of business process standardization are well-described, it is often undesirable to fully unify different variants due to cultural, legal, or operational reasons. Consequently, a decision has to be made about the extent to which a family of business processes should be standardized. However, little is known about the factors that drive that decision. This paper fills that gap, by presenting factors that drive the extent to which business processes can be standardized, performance properties that are influenced by business process standardization, and relations between these concepts

What Is Process Standardization?

Standards and standardization have played an important role in the evolution of information and communication technology. In parts of the literature on standardization and especially among practitioners we see a new theme emerge: business process standards. While there seems to be a consensus on the desirability of process standards, the concept has not yet been fully developed, and there is even less of a clear definition let alone a systematic understanding of the how and why of its value impact than with data and communication standards. In this paper, we suggest a process standardization construct and the associated value dimensions and report on a process standardization effort in a large multinational services firm that reveals how the theoretical considerations translate into concrete business value

Developing a Procedure Model for Business Process Standardization

Firms are focusing more closely on standardizing or homogenizing instances of a particular business process across different business units or locations. Our paper introduces research in progress on a business process standardization (BPS) procedure model that guides firms in conducting effective BPS firm-wide. This model is currently being developed and tested by applying it to a business process at Lufthansa Technik, following a design science cycle and taking an action research approach. This paper shows how we are following the good-practice guidelines of design science and how we intend to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of the model. Eventually, we expect this model to contribute significantly to extant research on BPS, which has to date focused on the outcomes of BPS and on the contingencies of BPS effectiveness rather than making prescriptive suggestions for reaping substantial process efficiency gains in large and decentralized firms