Collaborative Business Process Management: Exploring Themes, Achievements, and Perspectives

Under labels such as global value chains, global production networks, interconnected firms, or outsourcing cross-boundary business processes have gained significant attention in practice and research. However, only little research has yet systematically examined the implications of crossboundary business processes for Business Process Management (BPM). These cross-boundary business processes together with the drivers of collaboration and network management as well as governance form one of the key challenges for today’s BPM research. In this study we thus systematically review literature and seek to answer whether BPM research in Information Systems (IS) has yet embraced and explored the concept of collaboration. We find that collaborative BPM is a growing trend in IS research, but that there still exist significant research gaps. Therefore, we propose a research agenda that points at potentially fruitful directions for future research

The Age-Divide in Private Internet Usage: A Quantitative Study of Technology Acceptance

In today’s information society internet usage and e-literacy become more and more important. However, inequalities in internet usage of different social groups become and stay observable. Here, especially elderly citizens, with an increasing share of population in western societies, are often included from benefits related to information technology and internet usage. One important aspect of local governments’ policy is to bridge this so-called digital divide. However, up to now a thorough understanding of potential factors influencing private internet usage is not provided by the literature. Hence, this paper aims at identifying important influencing factors in order to explain senior citizens’ private internet use. Thus, we develop a model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and digital divide research which is tested against comprehensive survey data (n=192). The combined model is able to explain more than 70% of the variation of private internet use. Major implications for future research and e-Inclusion practice are discussed

The Power of Positivity: Framing IS adoption messages just right

In a longitudinal study of differences in framing an introduction of Grammarly, we find a gain framing to be more effective. Grammarly is an online spell-checking tool that can, for example, improve the text quality of students. We used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology UTAUT to study framing effects on adoption behavior. In a survey experiment, we presented students with a description of Grammarly that was either framed towards potential gains or potential losses use would avoid. Contrary to prior findings in the context of IS security, we find a gain framing to be more effective. We discovered, however, that the framing was only effective after three months, which offers initial insights into the effects of framing in information systems and raises new questions. We plan to study this effect further in a follow-up study with a larger number of participants

The MATH of Internet Adoption: Comparing Different Age-Groups

Modern societies share two common trends: First, elderly peopleform a strongly growing group in the population (societal aging)and, second, the importance of information and communicationtechnology is growing rapidly. However, the elderly are oftenexcluded from benefiting from IT-enabled service delivery: Anage-related digital divide exists. Current research lacksunderstanding what reasons prevent elderly to use the internet.Therefore, this paper examines the intention to use the internet ina private manner among the elderly. For higher explanatory powerwe also included two other age-groups (G1: \u3c40; G2: 40-59;G3: \u3e59). Here, we build a survey instrument based on the Modelof Acceptance of Technology in Households (MATH) and test themodel against comprehensive survey data (n=501). We find outthat MATH is able to explain between 42% and 81% of thevariance in private internet usage intention. Moreover, severaldifferences in driver for usage intention exist, e.g. was theimportance of applications for fun much higher in the first agegroup than among the other. Potentially fruitful avenues for futureresearch are discussed

How Do We Progress? An Exploration of Alternate Explanations for BPM Capability Development

Business process management (BPM) is a topic that has received immense attention in information systems research and practice. While the existing literature comprehensively covers BPM methods, techniques, and tools, the development of BPM capability in organizations remains under-researched. Existing studies mainly present maturity models with generic sequences of distinct stages that provide a rather simplistic perspective on BPM capability progress. Taking a process theory view and drawing from organizational change literature, we elaborate on alternate templates for explaining BPM capability development. By revisiting two case studies on BPM capability development, we analyze the explanatory power of four basic theories of capability development and thus advance existing approaches to explain BPM capability progress. Our analysis shows the general applicability of these theories and points to particular advantages, disadvantages, and application conditions. Using the four basic theories as alternate templates, we also offer a much more-detailed explanation of the mechanisms behind the episodes of BPM capability progress that we observed in the two case studies. In particular, the different theoretical templates allow one to better understand the influence of internal and external contexts on BPM capability progress

Stakeholder Involvement in Business Process Management Agenda-Setting and Implementation

Process management serves the design of IT and organizations, while multiple actors have stakes in setting the agenda and implementing process innovations. These stakeholders, from both inside and outside an organization‟s boundaries, constitute integral elements of a larger network of actors. The stimulation and utilization of such networks are critical success factors for process management and innovation initiatives. Without the inclusion of stakeholders, adaption of organizational processes to a dynamic environment can be expected to be less effective and less successful. Although the importance of process management networks and stakeholder inclusion is widely acknowledged in the literature, current research lacks a thorough empirically informed understanding of the phenomenon. Taking the public sector example, this paper sets out to study empirically the involvement of different stakeholders and to develop a theory for analysis of process management collaboration. We conduct a comprehensive quantitative survey of more than 350 organizations and apply principle component analysis to identify distinct sets of stakeholders. Empirical evidence is provided for collaborative patterns of internal actors, vertical collaboration partners, horizontal collaboration partners, political actors, commercial actors, and customers. These patterns can serve as generic theory constructs, building blocks, for future research on process management stakeholders and solving issue in research and practice regarding stakeholder involvement

How do Organizations react to Unintended Affordances? An Ethnography in Healthcare

When organizations implement information technology (IT) artifacts, they focus on intended functionalities. Misalignment between processes and organizational or individual goals can lead to unintended work practices. Users may actualize affordances that the artifact designer did not intend. As such, there is a potential tension between the goals users must achieve, the technology\u27s features and the organization\u27s policies. Organizations must respond to unintended affordances in regulated industries such as healthcare to ensure compliance. Understanding how organizations react to unintended affordances provides insights into individual and organizational behavior concerning the adoption and assimilation of IT artifacts. Organizations need guidance on responding to unintended affordances in specific situations. Therefore, this real-world ethnographical study seeks to identify organizational reactions to unintended affordances

Does Your Business Process Management (Still) Fit the Market? – A Dynamic Capability Perspective on BPM Strategy Development

Business Process Management (BPM) can be viewed as a set of techniques to integrate, build, and reconfigure an organization‟s business processes for the purpose achieving a fit with the market environment. While business processes are rather stable in low-dynamic markets, the frequency, quality, and importance of business process change amplifies with an increase in environmental dynamics. Taking the public sector example, we recognize that market dynamics can change over time (market dynamic shift), here: increase. We show that existing designs of BPM might not be able to cope with the mounting frequency and quality of business process change (market-BPM-misfit). On the basis of a qualitative in-depth case study, we provide evidence that a major cause for such misfit lies in ineffective (second order) organizational learning. We contribute to the literature by applying the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capability framework to the case of BPM in order to better understand shifts in market dynamics and their consequences for BPM effectiveness. Practitioners find a proposal for identifying, understanding, and reacting to a market-BPM-misfit and for developing market-oriented BPM strategy