Title: The impact of hyperautomation on business processes in SMEs

Authors: Marek Szelągowski; Justyna Berniak-Woźny

Addresses: Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Newelska 6, 01-447 Warsaw, Poland ' University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów, Sucharskiego 2, 35-225 Rzeszów, Poland

Abstract: An in-depth understanding of the nature of business processes becomes ever more critical as organisations worldwide enter the Industry 4.0 and may achieve a new level of competitiveness and efficiency through hyperautomation. The aim of the article is to present a theoretical reflection on this topic and case studies to eliminate the cognitive gap observed in this area. The authors present the current knowledge on the challenges faced by business process management in the era of hyperautomation, especially from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They discuss theoretical aspects and, in the form of two case studies, present how hyperautomation reduces traditional business processes to tasks performed mainly automatically and increases the importance of dynamic business processes (BPs), which are difficult to copy as a source of competitive advantages. This is especially important in the case of SMEs, which usually do not use their size (effect of scale) as a competitive advantage, but rather, their knowledge, speed of adaptation, or flexibility of action.

Keywords: business process management; BPM; business process nature; Industry 4.0; hyperautomation; small and medium enterprises; SMEs; illustrative case study.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2023.129646

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2023 Vol.13 No.3, pp.384 - 400

Received: 05 Mar 2021
Accepted: 02 Jun 2021

Published online: 17 Mar 2023 *

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