The critical success factors of business process management

Linking public leadership with project management effectiveness: Mediating role of goal clarity and moderating role of top management support

Objective

Grounding on social learning theory (SLT), this study examines the effect of public leadership on project management effectiveness (PME). Further, this study examines the mediating role of goal clarity and moderating role of top management support.

Methodology

Hierarchical linear regressions were used to investigate the relationships. PROCESS Hayes (2003) Model 7 was used for the moderation and mediation analysis. The data was collected from 322 Pakistani public sector developmental project employees.

Findings

The results show that public leadership positively affects goal clarity (β = 0.049, p < 0.001) and project management effectiveness (0.032, p < 0.001). In addition, goal clarity mediates the association between public leadership and project management effectiveness (0.36, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the strength of the mediated relationship between public leadership and project management effectiveness (via goal clarity) depends on top management support. The indirect effect of public leadership on project management effectiveness is high when top management support is high (compared to low).

Conclusion

The role of public leadership contributes significantly to the project's success. The project leader recognises, enlists, and promotes the organisation's core competencies, identifies, corrects, and controls key rigidities, places a high value on goal clarity, and continually lines up procedures with the project's overarching goals.

Implications

Public leadership is crucial in project management effectiveness, especially in the public sector, where projects often involve multiple stakeholders, limited resources, and complex regulatory requirements. Effective public leadership ensures that projects are aligned with the organization's mission and goals and carried out efficiently, on time, and within budget.

Examining and Comparing the Critical Success Factors Between Business Process Management and Business Process Automation

Organizations constantly seek for means of improving their business processes to remain competitive. Recently, much effort has been devoted to business process automation (BPA) projects. However, it has been unclear how these projects differ from traditional business process management (BPM) projects and which critical success factors (CSFs) play a crucial role. This study comparatively assesses how CSFs change for BPA with respect to BPM. Using a survey sample of 139 BPM and BPA experts, the study shows that top management support as a CSF warrants attention for BPM than BPA, while the importance of choosing project methodology significantly differs for BPM and BPA. The comparison between lightweight and heavyweight BPA types indicates that the top management support is relatively less critical for lightweight BPA. The explorative and fsQCA analyses provide insights about the patterns for industries with different IT strategic roles, expert perspectives, and among CSFs. Overall, the findings may help project managers assess the role of key CSFs better based on project focus.

Critical success factors and challenges for individual digital study assistants in higher education: A mixed methods analysis

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of online higher education programs and tools has grown rapidly. One example is an individual digital study assistant (IDSA) for students, which provides functionalities to train self-regulation skills, to engage with own educational goals and to offer automated, first-level support to higher education institution (HEI) units and employees. An IDSA further can guide students through HEI and their administration. But, what are the critical success factors (CSF) and challenges for an IDSA? We deduce these using a mixed methods approach with one quantitative student survey, two rounds of interviews with various HEI experts, and a literature review. We classified our results according to the information system (IS) success model of DeLone & McLean (2016). Our results and findings show, e.g., that skilled and reliable HEI personnel, well-organized and useful content, cross-platform usability, ease of use, and students' social factors are essential. Attractive IDSA functionalities are a major challenge because students use many apps, daily. Based on our CSF and challenges, we deduce theoretical and practical recommendations and develop a further research agenda.

On the Importance of Project Management Capabilities for Sustainable Business Process Management

In a recently published study on business process management (BPM) capabilities in the view of digitalization, project management was not named as a core capability by the corresponding Delphi panel. However, earlier (pre-digitalization) research suggests that project management is a key success factor for BPM. This contradiction could have severe impact with regard to the sustainability of process management. This article uses qualitative case study data to discuss potential reasons for this contradiction and to answer the question of how important project management is for contemporary BPM. As both traditional and agile project management knowledge was employed in the case study, results indicate that project management is indeed helpful for BPM, especially for discrete process change. Practitioners should consider project management knowledge when staffing business process optimization and digitalization initiatives. Research should develop a deeper understanding of agile and traditional project management as antecedents to sustainable BPM success and as BPM capabilities.

Critical Success Factors Evaluation by Multi-Criteria Decision-Making: A Strategic Information System Planning and Strategy-As-Practice Perspective

Strategic information system planning (SISP) is a central process that enables organizations to identify the strategic alignment of their IT portfolio to achieve their business needs and objectives. The extant SISP literature has focused on theoretical and processual aspects and has left methodological ambiguity about how SISP is practiced. This paper contributes to the current knowledge by providing a mixed-methods SISP framework labeled CSF-MCDM for company-wide strategic alignment. The paper conducts a methodological synthesis, embracing an expert-based qualitative approach based on a PEST-SWOT and causal layered analysis to draw the critical success factors of a next-generation business system for an automotive company in South Korea. The derived CSF dimensions and sub-criteria are evaluated by the multi-criteria decision-making model, engaging a strategy-as-practice lens to SISP to enable an integrative analysis of IS strategy formulation, planning, and implementation. The findings reveal the relative strategic priorities of dimensions, the following core activities, and the global priorities for resource distribution planning for IS strategy of the firm. This paper argues that bringing replicability with SISP and diversifying methodological approaches within the organization is substantial. This paper also suggests that future researchers validate the suggested framework for scientific replicability and expand the SISP research stream within the entire IS/IT ecosystem.

Decision-Making under the Risk, Uncertainty and COVID-19 Pandemic Conditions Applying the PL9A Method of Logistics Planning—Case Study

The next industrial revolution, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, is prompting a different look at the issue of supply chain change management. A new perspective should take into account the aspect of supply chain efficiency at multiple levels. Efficient logistics is green and energy-saving, both of which need to be systematically integrated with the logistical planning processes. The dynamic changes on the demand and supply side resulting from social, political, and economic transformations have significantly influenced the shaping of long-term supply chains. The development of new manufacturing and logistics technologies prompts the development and implementation of new integrated planning methods to support supply chain management processes. Modern supply chains are oriented towards operations in a dynamically changing socio-economic environment. The new methods are capable of incorporating dynamic adaptation of logistics infrastructure which respond to changing relationships between supply and demand. To meet the identified problems of complexity, relevance, and time-consumption of the logistic planning process in modern enterprise management, the PL9A method of logistic planning and 9A LOGPLANNER application for logistics planning were developed. The article presents the results of experimental and simulation studies on the improvement of logistic processes in a working manufacturing enterprise with application of the PL9A method. The results of the experimental work indicate that the application of the PL9A method embedded in the 9A LOGPLANNER software makes it possible to dynamically simulate any number of logistics system variants in a short period of time, while reducing risk and obtaining tangible benefits in terms of energy and ecological efficiency.

Managing BPM life cycle transition risks in a small educational company to support change management

Purpose

This article aims to present a methodology applied to the transition between the “as-is” and “to-be” stages of the Business Process Management (BPM) life cycle, supporting its implementation and maintenance for the organizational stability, using techniques from Operations Research and Information and Decision Theories, applied by a gamified system.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used Design Science Research, considering the following methodological elements: (1) artifact model, after initial analysis of the organization; (2) problem relevance, incorporating components to the Markov transition matrix and the integer programming model for resource optimization; (3) model evaluation, establishing mechanisms to validate the methodology created; (4) research contributions, showing benefits found; (5) systematic approach, detailing methods used; (6) model's research process, revealing the means for execution; and (7) final presentation of results.

Findings

After planning three scenarios for the company, containing zero, one or two implemented processes, the matrix of states in the Markov chain effectively identified the states of greater and lesser transition uncertainty. At the same time, the optimization model guided the organization toward a stable change in its operational and financial areas.

Practical implications

The company's planning capacity has increased, as its managers now have a methodology to promote rational decisions about the development of plans. Before, managers believed that the methodology used was only for large companies. However, this view changed with the results, showing a structured view of the ability to absorb new customers, relocate established ones, increase the comfort level for employees and increase profitability for the company's business.

Originality/value

The study showed that the combination of techniques opens a new perspective to the incorporation of BPM in organizations, allows a smooth change between the current and future state, making it possible to predict the evolution of transition scenarios.

Understanding dynamic distribution capabilities to enhance supply chain performance: a dynamic capability view

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and understand the factors that contribute to the enhancement in the process of supply chain activities, specifically among manufacturing industries.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper follows the quantitative approach by disseminating a structured questionnaire to supply chain practitioners working in manufacturing industries. A sample of 109 responses is gathered from senior employees involved in sales and operations planning. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are performed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the model. Lastly, SmartPLS is used to test the hypotheses proposed in the study.

Findings

The findings revealed that demand sensing and managing practices positively impact supply chain performance by creating dynamic distribution capabilities. It is observed that distribution capabilities integrate both efficient and effective handling of resources. However, demand management practice has insignificant relationship with supply chain performance.

Research limitations/implications

The authors suggest that supply chain management must expand in firms, and importance must be given as supply chain performance can provide competitive advantage in order to sustain in today's competitive market.

Practical implications

The findings can help decision-makers working in the planning process by identifying the right tools to sense the market and react accordingly.

Originality/value

This paper is an initial effort to understand the dynamic distribution capabilities by establishing the link with the studied variables, especially in the manufacturing industries in Pakistan.

Business value of cognitive analytics technology: a dynamic capabilities perspective

Purpose

Novel and emerging technologies such as cognitive analytics attract a lot of hype among academic researchers and practitioners. However, returns on investments in these technologies are often poor. So, identifying mechanisms through which cognitive analytics can add value to firms is a critical research gap. The purpose of this paper is to theorize how cognitive analytics technologies can enable the dynamic capabilities of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring for an organization.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper draws on the extant academic literature on cognitive analytics and related technologies, the business value of analytics and artificial intelligence and the dynamic capabilities perspective, to establish the role of cognitive analytics technologies in enabling the sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities of an organization.

Findings

Through arguments grounded in existing conceptual and empirical academic literature, this paper develops propositions and a theoretical framework linking cognitive analytics technologies with organizations’ dynamic capabilities (sensing, seizing and reconfiguring).

Research limitations/implications

This paper has critical implications for both academic research and managerial practice. First, the authors develop a framework using the dynamic capabilities theoretical perspective to establish a novel pathway for the business value of cognitive analytics technology. Second, cognitive analytics is proposed as a novel antecedent of the dynamic organizational capabilities of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to theorize how cognitive analytics technologies can enable dynamic organizational capabilities, and thus add business value to an organization.

Implementation of the Digital Sales Channel in the Coatings Industry

The development process in the coatings industry can be shortened by digital transformation, and its costs can be reduced using a technical enabler. However, formulators need up-to-date and comprehensive data on existing and potential ingredients to develop the formulation. We were curious about how to supply formulators with data. The idea was that suppliers of ingredients provide data using the “common enabling technology”. We hypothesize that direct data entry compensates suppliers because they can shorten the sales process and increase sales. We used a survey to select key sales channels in the industry. Detailed process models were designed using structured interviews. We analyzed models using structural and operational indicators. Finally, we formed a new digital sales process and verified it. The results show that the digitally formatted sales process can be shortened by up to 32%. Simultaneously, more potential customers can be accessed using the common technology. Existing sales channels would not be closed down. Nevertheless, the digital sales channel is expected to prove its worth over time and gradually increase its share. The suppliers of ingredients can thus avoid a radical process transformation and the immediate integration of additional information technology into the company information system in such an evolutionary way.

The process of developing dynamic capabilities: The conceptualization attempt and the results of empirical studies

While most researchers interested in the concept of dynamic capabilities focus their attention on analyzing how companies transform their resources to compete in their environment, the process of developing dynamic capabilities is treated as a marginal issue. Although the literature suggests various approaches to developing dynamic capabilities, they are formulated in general terms, and doubts can be raised about the links between actions. There is also a lack of empirical research indicating the links between activities in the process of developing dynamic capabilities and their influence on the effectiveness of an organization. The aim of the study is to formulate a proposal for a model of the process of developing dynamic capabilities aimed at increasing the economic effectiveness of a company and to determine the links between the activities in the model. The theoretical contribution of the paper consists in presenting a model of the process of developing dynamic capabilities aimed at increasing the economic effectiveness of the company. The results presented in the paper refer to an empirical examination of the model of developing dynamic capabilities, covering five activities: searching for opportunities; knowledge management and learning; coordination; configuration and reconfiguration; and organizational adaptation. The study also includes an examination of the possible impact the components of the dynamic capabilities building process have on a company’s performance. The study uses the survey method and data was obtained from top managers. The conclusion, based on data from 471 Polish companies, was made using structural equation modelling. The results of the empirical research suggest that the individual activities in the process of developing dynamic capabilities are interconnected, and through mutual interactions and couplings, they positively affect the economic effectiveness of an enterprise. The results indicate that searching for opportunities is the precursor, and the main factor influencing the other activities in the process, which suggests that managers should focus on improving activities in this area.

A Drone Logistic Model for Transporting the Complete Analytic Volume of a Large-Scale University Laboratory

We present a model for drone transport of the complete annual analytic volume of 6.5 million analyses—(routine and emergency) between two inner-city university laboratories at Oslo University Hospital located 1.8 km apart and with a time restriction for the analyses of no more than 60 min. The total laboratory activity was analyzed per min for the complete year of 2018. The time from the clinical ordering of tests to the loading of the drone, drone transport time, and analysis time after the sample arrived at the analyzing laboratory were assessed using the lead time of emergency analyses of C-reactive protein, troponin, and the international normalized ratio. The activity had characteristic diurnal patterns, with the most intensive traffic between 8 and 12 a.m. on weekdays and there being considerably less traffic for the rest of the day, at night and on weekends. Drone schedules with departures 15–60 min apart were simulated. A maximum of 15 min between flights was required to meet the emergency demand for the analyses being completed within 60 min. The required drone weight capacity was below 3.5 kg at all times. In multiple simulations, the drone times were appropriate, whereas variations in the clinic- and laboratory-related time intervals caused violations of the allowed time 50% of the time. Drone transport with regular schedules may potentially improve the transport time compared with traditional ground transport and allow the merging of large laboratories, even when the demand for emergency analyses restricts the maximum transport time. Comprehensive economic evaluations and robust drone technology are needed before such solutions can be ready for implementation.

How the COVID ‐19 pandemic can stimulate more radical business process improvements: Using the metaphor of a tree

The COVID‐19 pandemic has forced organizations and employees worldwide to drastically rethink their way of working. While drastic process changes normally tend to fail or are challenged by employee resistance, the COVID‐19 pandemic has reduced this impediment so that organizations actually experience how alternative (i.e., more simple and digitalized) working alternatives can look like. This opinion paper calls for more business process management (BPM) ambidexterity in organizations, so that the alternatives experienced during COVID‐19 can be evaluated and remain after the pandemic. For this purpose, a BPM tree is proposed to outweigh incremental process improvements from more radical ones, in order for organizations to exploit good practices but also to better explore emerging opportunities.

Evaluation of Process Orientation Dimensions in the Apparel Industry

The dimensions that influence the establishment of business process management (BPM) practices and the progression to higher levels of process maturity derive from exploring the dimensions of process orientation of organizations. Small and medium-sized clothing enterprises (SME’s) are characterized by various specifics that can affect the degree of process orientation adoption and the pace of transition from lower to higher levels of process maturity. According to these specifics, the acceptance of the process approach may be differently affected. For the purpose of adequate evaluation and prioritization of the most influential dimensions, a new integrated multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model that combines classical and fuzzy theory was developed. First, the full consistency method (FUCOM) method was applied, followed by the fuzzy pivot pairwise relative criteria importance assessment (fuzzy PIPRECIA) method to obtain more accurate criteria values. Prioritization of the most influential BPM dimension contributes to highlighting the area of business that needs to be primarily strengthened by appropriate actions for successful establishment of BPM in apparel industry SMEs. Within this research, the prioritized dimension refers to human resource management in accordance with the specific aspects of business within the apparel industry.

How do organizations implement an effective LSS initiative? A qualitative study

Purpose

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is one of the most popular and widely used business improvement methodologies. However, many organizations discontinue LSS despite a plethora of studies on the critical success factors. The purpose of this study is to answer the research question how do organizations implement an effective LSS initiative?

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative study is conducted on managers working in companies using LSS for a long time. The data were analysed using Colaizzi method.

Findings

Twelve factors were identified which were responsible for the effective implementation of LSS. They are financial performance, organization-wide LSS culture, organization-wide innovation culture, continuous training and retraining of employees on LSS, continuous top management support, linking LSS to business strategy, linking LSS to the customer, project selection strategy, communication, recognition and compensation systems, social benefits and green benefits.

Originality/value

This is the first study to investigate the effective implementation of LSS initiative in the organization.

An Exploration into Future Business Process Management Capabilities in View of Digitalization

Business process management (BPM) is a mature discipline that drives corporate success through effective and efficient business processes. BPM is commonly structured via capability frameworks, which describe and bundle capability areas relevant for implementing process orientation in organizations. Despite their comprehensive use, existing BPM capability frameworks are being challenged by socio-technical changes such as those brought about by digitalization. In line with the uptake of novel technologies, digitalization transforms existing and enables new processes due to its impact on individual behavior and needs, intra- and inter-company collaboration, and new forms of automation. This development led the authors to presume that digitalization calls for new capability areas and that existing frameworks need to be updated. Hence, this study explored which BPM capability areas will become relevant in view of digitalization through a Delphi study with international experts from industry and academia. The study resulted in an updated BPM capability framework, accompanied by insights into challenges and opportunities of BPM. The results show that, while there is a strong link between current and future capability areas, a number of entirely new and enhanced capabilities are required for BPM to drive corporate success in view of digitalization.

Factors Impacting Successful BPMS Adoption and Use: A South African Financial Services Case Study

Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) are being adopted in organisations to increase business process agility across a diverse application landscape. Yet many organisations struggle to achieve agile business processes when using a BPMS. This South African financial services case study explains factors found to negatively impact successful BPMS adoption and use. The Alter work system’s framework and the Rosemann and vom Brocke core BPM elements were used as theoretical lenses to understand the case. The paper describes frustrations of an IT team trying to increase process agility with a BPMS in a large legacy application landscape. The main factors driving this frustration were the difficulty of integrating with other applications and staff bypassing design and code approval procedures. The impact of BPM strategy, culture and governance on BPM methods, resourcing and technology is explained. The paper presents an explanatory model which should be useful for practitioners wanting to adopt a BPMS. The BPM literature lacks empirical qualitative case studies and theoretical models and this paper aimed to contribute to both.

Governance Challenges Constraining Business Process Management: The Case of a Large South African Financial Services Corporate

Obtaining and maintaining a competitive advantage is vital for profit-driven organizations. Business Process Management (BPM) and the governance thereof offer such organizations a framework of management practices within which to achieve this goal. The objectives of this study were to identify and describe the BPM governance challenges that constrain BPM in large South African corporates as BPM in South Africa had not previously received any comprehensive BPM governance focus. Additionally, the BPM and BPM governance bodies of knowledge lack literature on studies focused on BPM governance challenges. Qualitative research methods were utilized to collect useful and descriptive data through secondary document collection and interviews in a single case study. The study confirmed eight of the literature-identified governance challenge themes that constrain BPM and contributed eleven new BPM governance challenge themes to the BPM and BPM governance body of research.

Towards successful business process improvement - An extension of change acceleration process model

Change Acceleration Process model (CAP) emerged in early 90's as a set of principles for accelerating change management efforts in organizations. Business Process Improvement (BPI) projects open avenues of opportunity and success for organizations in this highly competitive era. However, most of these projects fail due to lack of commitment, communication, scope creep and inadequate resources. This research attempts to study industry relevant factors most critical to success of a BPI Project in the highly competitive telecom sector. Modified Delphi technique employing a panel of telecom professionals was adopted in order to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) after a thorough review of the literature. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to map extracted factors to the five agents of change. Research outcome defines the relevant CSFs in terms of vision, skills, incentives, resources and action plan. A significant contribution of this research is an extended CAP model for implementation of BPI projects. Practical implications of this research are utilization of the proposed model for BPI project success.

Exploring member readiness for change in manufacturing industries using phenomenology

Purpose

This paper aims to explore member readiness for change in manufacturing industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors interviewed 14 upper management professionals in Northeast US state companies. Inductive analysis and creative synthesis were used for identifying important patterns, themes and relationships pertaining to external and internal factors influencing employee attitudes related to change processes.

Findings

The findings suggest relationship between process change and member readiness for change. Leadership and communication channels play a significant role in determining how members adapt and respond to organizational process changes. Companies can achieve desirable outcomes when members trust organizational leadership and perceive management as fair and transparent.

Originality/value

Currently, there is little known about the relationship between process change and member readiness for change in manufacturing industry. The study advances the theoretical literature and provides practical information for manufacturing professionals.

Critical success factors for Lean implementation in IT outsourcing relationships

Purpose

Following positive results of Lean implementation in manufacturing environments, Lean has become an emerging philosophy for clients and suppliers of information technology (IT) services. However, how to implement Lean in IT outsourcing relationships has been addressed sparsely in academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to investigate critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing Lean in IT outsourcing relationships. Key findings, implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

Six IT outsourcing relationships were qualitatively investigated by means of 36 semi-structured interviews. CSFs were identified based on interview transcription analyses, selection techniques and expert reviews.

Findings

In total, 16 CSFs for Lean implementation in IT outsourcing relationships are identified and described.

Practical implications

The CSFs presented in this paper indicate key areas that deserve managerial attention to steer Lean implementation efforts in IT outsourcing relationships in a favorable direction.

Originality/value

This study is the first to describe the phenomenon of “Lean IT outsourcing” and provides researchers and practitioners with a foundation to further examine Lean implementation in IT outsourcing relationships.

Factors impacting technology adoption in hospital bed logistics

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to refine and expand technology adoption theory for a healthcare logistics setting by combining the technology–organization–environment framework with a business process management (BPM) perspective. The paper identifies and ranks factors impacting the decision to implement instances of technologies in healthcare logistics processes.

Design/methodology/approach

A multiple case study is carried out at five Danish hospitals to investigate the bed logistics process. A combined technology adoption and BPM lens is applied to gain an understanding of the reasoning behind technology adoption.

Findings

A set of 17 factors impacting the adoption of technologies within healthcare logistics was identified. The impact factors perceived as most important to the adoption of technologies in healthcare logistics processes relate to quality, employee work conditions and employee engagement.

Research limitations/implications

This paper seeks to understand how managers can use knowledge about impact factors to improve processes through technology adoption. The findings of this study provide insights about the factors impacting the adoption of technologies in healthcare logistics processes. Differences in perceived importance of factors enable ranking of impact factors, and prioritization of changes to be implemented. The study is limited to five hospitals, but is expected to be representative of public hospitals in developed countries and applicable to similar processes.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the empirical research within the field of BPM and technology adoption in healthcare. Furthermore, the findings of this study enable managers to make an informed decision about technology adoption within a healthcare logistics setting.

Competency profiles for lean professionals – an international perspective

Purpose

Requirements for business improvement professionals depend on different job characteristics. By focussing on lean management, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a comprehensive conceptualisation of competencies relevant for lean professionals by comparing them to an existing project management competency framework; and second, to identify their similarities and differences in three different analysed countries.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates 2,701 online published job advertisements in the USA, UK and Germany by means of a content analysis to compare and contrast the respective job profiles.

Findings

Main findings are similarities and differences in the specification and perception of lean professional’s roles among the three countries. Strikingly, four out of eight considered competency categories comprise 74 per cent of the profiles’ most relevant keywords. Additionally, with the help of a latent semantic analysis, 16 specific competencies can be summarised in a lean professional’s competency taxonomy.

Research limitations/implications

The collected data only represent a snapshot of lean professionals’ advertisements. Also, text mining results from job profiles could largely differ from other techniques like recruiter interviews or company surveys. Further research could use different methods or combine them to construct a more complete model.

Practical implications

Lean education and training as well as the respective candidate selection processes can benefit from these studies’ results.

Originality/value

Requirements and job contents for lean professionals have not been empirically researched on a comparable in-depth level before, even though their expertise is in high demand in any kind of business sector.

A study on the adaptive approach to technology-driven enhancement of multi-scenario business processes

Purpose

Process-oriented organizations are compelled to be innovative and continuously implement changes to meet customer requirements and gain a competitive advantage in accordance with the business process management approach. In the digital age, organizations develop business process support systems using agile methods and introduce adaptation skills in order to support their core business. Seamlessly integrating both practices into a coherent and practically applicable solution supporting multi-scenario processes infallibly remains a challenge. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The workshops identifying the key issues in an international capital group that consolidates facility management companies, as well as a related research review, have fueled a two-cycled Canonical Action Research (CAR) study.

Findings

The paper extends the current understanding of IT-enabled agility, proposing an adaptively improved infrastructure with a catalog of digital options that facilitates the composition of multi-scenario business processes.

Research limitations/implications

The CAR was limited to the members of management board and the managers constituting the focus groups. The agile business process management (ABPM) model proposed focuses on adding novel functionalities/building new processes, leaving functionality lifecycle out-of-scope. ABPM empirical validation is limited to a single business/technical case.

Practical implications

Real-life solution for supporting dynamic business processes was delivered, as rigid IT solutions do not support quick assembly of customized business processes with abundant number of scenarios. The infrastructure enables composition of customer-tailored services based on re-usable digital options directory as well as enhances business process discrepancies/software bugs detection, reducing the cost of maintaining IT infrastructure for entire customer portfolio. A number of issues resulting from building IT solutions within a series of isolated projects with no coherent overall development strategy are mitigated.

Originality/value

The ABPM acts as a reference model for focusing on developing critical functionalities and limiting resources consumed by redundant features.

Can continuous improvement lead to satisfied customers? Evidence from the services industry

Purpose

To achieve higher customer satisfaction (CS), companies implement continuous improvement (CI) programs, regardless of the growing evidence of their failure to achieve declared goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify whether companies are able to improve CS through the application of CI; and, second, to identify what organizational practices are able to facilitate the impact of CI on CS.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the developed assumptions, the study uses the structural equation modeling technique. The data for analysis were collected from 304 service companies via a custom web-survey.

Findings

The research confirms the direct positive impact of CI on CS. Further, the study demonstrates that management commitment and rewards system that encourages employees to participate in CI play the major facilitating role in improving CS through CI. These practices accompanied by quality-oriented culture and employee training in the improvement tools provide necessary infrastructure to sustain CI in the companies over time. Additionally, regardless of the vital role of goal setting for CI established in previous research, the proposed study finds a limited ability of goal setting, as compared to other organizational practices, to facilitate CI–CS relationship.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the scarce field of research on CI implementation in the services environment. Further, the research assesses CS as a variable of interest, as opposite to the previous studies, considering CS as a part of the composite variable. The research assesses the impact of the training in CI methodology on the CI–CS relationship, while previous research focuses on the general, work-related training. The findings provide an important basis for further academic work in the area of quality management. The identified practices can serve as guidance for managers, implementing CI in their companies due to the high fit of the proposed model.

Segmenting critical success factors of humanitarian supply chains using fuzzy DEMATEL

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the critical success factors (CSFs) of humanitarian supply chains in mitigating the impact of cyclones in the Indian context using the fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach.

Design/methodology/approach

The selection of CSFs of humanitarian supply chains has been done through several secondary sources and discussion with 12 disaster experts. Thereafter, DEMATEL, an expert judgement-based technique, has been used for selecting, building and analysing a structural model that involves causal relationships between the set of identified CSFs. Furthermore, to accommodate the vagueness involved in human judgement, fuzzy logic is incorporated with the DEMATEL.

Findings

Based on a literature survey and expert judgement, total 16 CSFs of humanitarian supply chains have been segmented into cause and effect groups based upon their relative influencing scores. The analysis shows that the out of 16 CSFs, ten CSFs have been categorised into cause group CSFs and six as the effect group CSFs.

Practical implications

The findings of this study will help disaster management institutions, humanitarian agencies, logisticians, NGOs and cyclone-prone countries to improve the critical ingredients in designing and executing an effective cyclone response operation.

Originality/value

In this study, fuzzy DEMATEL has been applied to identify and analyse the CSFs of humanitarian supply chains for the cyclone disaster response in the Indian context, which is a novel contribution widening the existing knowledge in humanitarian relief domain.