Business Process Governance: Theorizing and Empirical Application
Studies by Gartner (2010) or McKinsey (2008) suggest univocally that improving business processes is the undisputed number one priority for organizations world wide. Hence, organizations need adequate capabilities for Business Process Management (BPM) However, these capabilities do not necessarily need to be developed in the organization itself an inclusion using other sourcing structures (e.g. cooperation/network or market instead of hierarchy) is possible as well. This paper builds upon an understanding of BPM as a dynamic capability and a well known distinction of governance strategies (market, cooperation, hierarchy) to develop a business process governance framework. Using an extensive case study we initially test this framework in a European PRODUCTION company. Therefore, we make the following contributions: 1) development of a BPM theory that integrates dynamic capability and governance theory, 2) a model for understanding sourcing strategies in BPM, and 3) empirically sound factors explaining sourcing strategies in BPM. Our results suggest that organizations facing a low dynamic market environment do not employ dedicated resources for business process change but rely on ad hoc measures. Moreover, they gather these resources mostly internally (hierarchical governance) The paper ends with implications for both research and practice, limitations, and potential avenues for future research.
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