International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management (19 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Operation of selected processes in SMEs.  
  by Monika Březinová 
  Abstract: Processes and process management are an important part of corporate management. The paper presents a comparison of the developments at the level of functioning of selected processes in SMEs in the South Bohemian region for the period of three years. It describes the process both in general and in the division of the selected sectors: trade, services, construction, and manufacturing. If we evaluate the entire sample examined in the period, we can say that business is focused on increasing the level of functioning of the production process, which increased from 70 to 90%. Minimal or no change was observed in the processes of finance (80% in both years) and marketing (73%). The process of HR decreased the level of functioning from 80 to 76%.
  Keywords: management; SME; process; production; marketing; finance; human resources management.
  
  
• Total quality management and organisational performance: the mediating role of market orientation  
  by Abdullah Kaid Al-Swidi, Gaboul Faiz, Hamid Gelaidan 
  Abstract: The main objective of this study was to investigate the mediating link of Market Orientation (MO) on the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and Organisational Performance (OP). To achieve the objective of this study, a survey questionnaire was distributed to 350 people of managerial positions in Libyan bank branches. Of these, 230 questionnaires were returned. The data were then analysed using Structural Equation Modelling Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) approach to confirm the validity and reliability of the measures, before undertaking hypotheses testing analysis. The results of this study revealed that TQM has a positive and significant effect on market orientation and organisational performance. More importantly, the results have also confirmed the mediating effect of MO between TQM and organisational performance. This might explains better the competitive power of companies adopting TQM strategy to outperform their rivals in the market.
  Keywords: total quality management; market orientation; organisational performance; banks; Libya.
  
  
• Process innovation in information systems research: a missing exploration  
  by Jürgen Moormann, Yevgen Bogodistov 
  Abstract: In times of digitalisation, competitive pressure on a global scale, and customers increasing power, companies efforts to improve their business processes became mandatory. However, simple improvements of the processes might not be sufficient often a development of completely new processes is necessary. Therefore, the focus has to be shifted towards process innovation to be able to cope with new technologies, start-ups and even with some fast-changing traditional enterprises. This paper examines the state-of-the-art of research in the field of process innovation and presents a multidisciplinary literature review of top academic journals covering a period of more than 10 years (20052015). The review focuses on research methods applied in papers dedicated to the process innovation concept. The method of analysis and the conclusions derived concerning the maturity of the concept of process innovation prepare a basis for future process innovation theory.
  Keywords: process innovation; process innovation theory; process management; information systems.
  
  
• Critical analysis of factors impacting trust and opportunism in agri-food supply chains: the case of tomatoes in the Northern Tanzania  
  by Martin Dome, Sadananda Prusty 
  Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse factors impacting trust (and opportunism) in the tomato supply chain in the Arusha region of Tanzania. The study had two objectives, which lead to the proposition that willingness or existence of collaborative relationships in the supply chain, coupled with willingness/existence of sharing physical or information resources among the partners, influence trust and subsequently determine the extent of opportunism. The study adopted a multiple case research design involving several actors in the chain. The data were collected using a questionnaire. The study found that collaboration with inputs retailers, collaboration with tomato farmers, risk sharing with other partners and sharing of physical resources with other partners have the highest impacts on trust. Thus, opportunism would increase if good business practices to foster trust as recommended are not adopted as stipulated in the listed factors and vice versa. Other factors, such as culture and regional specific variables, may have impacts on trust and opportunism, thus constituting an area for further research.
  Keywords: tomato supply chain; trust; opportunism; agri-food supply chain; collaboration; supply chain relationship; trust in supply chain relationships; opportunistic behaviour in supply chain relationships.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJBPIM.2019.10024617
   
  
• Towards a framework for the successful implementation of a government cloud in Saudi Arabia  
  by Amal Alkhlewi, Robert Walters, Gary Wills 
  Abstract: Despite the effort and copious resources Saudi Arabia is investing in its transition towards e-government, it is hindered by the weakness of the information and communication technology infrastructure in its government agencies. The development of a private government cloud is a solution for improving and standardising the ICT infrastructure, but cloud computing is still in the early stages in the country. To effectively implement a private government cloud in Saudi Arabia it is necessary to identify the factors that will affect its success. Therefore, this research identifies the critical success factors for the implementation of a government cloud, and based on these factors, a framework for the successful implementation of a government cloud (FSIGC) in Saudi Arabia was developed and confirmed by a methodological triangulation .
  Keywords: cloud computing; government cloud; e-Government; critical success factors.
  
  
• Development of a performance measurement framework for home furniture delivery and assembly logistics providers in Thailand  
  by Suratin Tunyaplin, Wirachchaya Chanpuypetch 
  Abstract: Currently, the world's largest furniture retailer, IKEA, is expanding its stores around the world, including in Thailand. This brand has an extraordinary characteristic that distinguishes it from other furniture retailers: customers can tailor their products for assembly through the concept of Do It Yourself. Accordingly, a last-mile delivery service provider must be capable of providing both home delivery and complex assembly services to the end customers. Besides, the last mile is often less efficient, comprising up to 28% of the total cost to move goods. It has become known as the 'last mile problem'. Therefore, this article proposes a performance measurement model (PMM) for last-mile home furniture delivery and assembly services (HoFurDAS). The model is developed empirically based on the case study of a service provider that has been outsourced by IKEAs branch in Bangkok, Thailand. Initially, the current process workflow is standardised by mapping using the well-known operations process reference model, the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model that derived the important performance indicators. By enhancing the proposed PMM, all the identified metrics are also prioritised by performing pair-wise comparisons through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and application with the operational data of the case. This PMM benefits a home delivery and assembly service provider for monitoring and controlling the quality of service to gain customer satisfaction and to maintain a good reputation with business partners.
  Keywords: performance measurement system; last-mile delivery; supply chain operations reference; home furniture delivery and assembly services; furniture supply chain; analytic hierarchy process.
  
  
• The influence of ICT adoption on the development of managerial modes of consulting firms in France  
  by Nizar Raissi, Henda Matoussi 
  Abstract: This study seeks to understand the nature of relationships between components of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption and managerial modes. The paper focuses on the experience of consulting firms, and how they perceived the role of ICT tools on the fashion. Participants in this study consisted of 30 consultants of a major consulting firm in France. The analysis was conducted with qualitative method, which is the correspondence factor analysis (CFA) using SPSS software. From the study, firstly, we found that reengineering was influenced by the internet, software and website access more than other ICT tools. Secondly, the innovation has a high correlation with communications technology. Thirdly, the coaching connects more with EDI, cloud computing, transactions and data. Finally, partnership as managerial fashion determinants has very strong relationships with hardware and procedures.
  Keywords: ICT; managerial modes; EDI; cloud computing; coaching; reengineering.
  
  
• Comparison of job satisfaction between staff and labour in steel industry of Northern India: an empirical investigation  
  by Jagdeep Singh, Harwinder Singh 
  Abstract: The concept of job satisfaction attracts much more attraction in recent years. Job satisfaction is a general attitude towards ones job, the difference between the amount of reward workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive. Employees are the backbone of every organisation. So employees' satisfaction is very important. The main aim of this study is to analyse the satisfaction level of staff and labour in the steel industry of Northern India. A questionnaire was designed that includes all individual and technical variables. The survey was performed from 146 employees (44 staff and 102 labour) in the steel industry. Z-test and chi-square test are used to check the significant level and association level, respectively. ANOVA test is used to check the level of job satisfaction of staff and labour on technical variables. The study shows that individual factors have less effect on staff. Moreover, labour has great impact by individual factors. Technical variables show some effect on both staff and labour. 69% of staff are satisfied with their jobs and only 60% labour are satisfied.
  Keywords: job satisfaction; staff; labour; steel industry in India.
  
  
• Analysing supply chain risk management capabilities through collaborative and integrative approach  
  by Waqar Ahmed, Arsalan Najmi, Asif Khan 
  Abstract: In this era of market turbulence and external uncertainty, supply chain risk management is getting top attention in almost every dynamic business. This study is carried out to empirically investigate relational factors influencing demand side and supply side risk management. The sample of 149 valid responses was gathered through a structured questionnaire from marketing, planning, supply chain and logistics professionals from the textile sector and was analysed using Partial Least Squares Smart (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using SmartPLS 3.2.4. This research will significantly contribute to the literature of supply chain risk management as well as helping risk management professionals to understand the integrative and collaborative approach to improve supply chain resilience and robustness.
  Keywords: supply chain risk management; supply chain integration; supply chain collaboration; organisational performance.
  
  
• Simulation modelling and analysis of fresh agri-food supply chain configuration: the case of Arusha City in Tanzania  
  by Martin Dome, Sadananda Prusty 
  Abstract: The purpose of this study was to achieve threefold objectives viz. analyse the existing supply chain configuration of fresh agri-food supply chain (AFSC) in Tanzania, apply the simulation technique to the supply chain configuration and evaluate it using a specialised software. The method adopted in this study involved collection of primary data on arrival of consignment from farmers, brokers, wholesalers and retailers seeking to be served timely and accurately from the Kilombero Central Market (KCM) in Arusha City of Northern Tanzania. For the departure to other designated distribution points, the data were collected concurrently and both were triangulated with secondary data held by the Market Master. The part of the methodology involved building a simulation model based on SIMUL8 Professional and the input data were run as part of studying the largest central market for fresh produce in the northern zone of Tanzania. The findings indicate that, the supply chain configuration of fresh agri-food sub-sector under the case has a defined configuration resulted from doing the business as usual and in an informal arrangement. However, the configuration is marked by inefficiencies of the key facility (KCM) such as time wastage and under-utilisation of personnel and tools/workstations posing a bottleneck in the whole supply chain of the fresh produce in meeting the time-sensitive performance criterion. The managerial implication on the findings suggests for dedicated interventions in restructuring the AFSC and formalising operations and business practices accordingly. Moreover, large-scale simulation studies in AFSC are suggested as part of strategies to improve performance of the sub-sector in Tanzania.
  Keywords: simulation modelling; agri-food supply chains; SIMUL8 Professional; supply chain configuration.
  
  
• Effectiveness of enterprise resource planning systems: case study of Shirin Asal Company  
  by Nader Rezaei, Alireza Mirzaeinezhad 
  Abstract: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems consist of a broad variety of software modules which support the business operations of organisation and decision making process. This research is aimed at investigating the implementation of ERP systems and its effectiveness in Shirin Asal Company of Tabriz. The considered effectiveness criteria in this study are some system features comprise customer-orientation, sharing information, notification way and cooperation of unities. The research population consists of the employees of Shirin Asal Co. including 134 people. The present research is an applied one of field descriptive-survey studies type. The method of testing the hypothesis is correlation and regression test. The results of analyzing the research data suggest that employing enterprise resource planning systems in Shirin Asal power information sharing. Also, using ERP systems will influence the cooperation between the units, enhance customer-orientation, and develop the way of notification.
  Keywords: enterprise resource planning; customer-orientation; sharing information; notification way; cooperation of units.
  
  
• Configurable artifact-centric business process modelling with proclets  
  by Guosheng Kang 
  Abstract: To promote reuse and rapid modelling of business process models, configurable business process modelling is proposed for traditional activity-centric business process models. However, to the best of our knowledge, few approaches on configurable process modelling have been developed for artifact-centric business process models which have emerged in recent years. This paper fills the gap by proposing a configurable process modelling approach for artifact-centric business process models. In our approach, proclets are used to describe the internal lifecycles of artifacts, and the proclet system describes the artifact-centric process model: artifact lifecycles and their interaction. To derive the integrated representation of artifact-centric process model variants, we propose merger operation for two artifact-centric process model variants. We obtain a configurable proclet system by setting configurable points in the integrated proclet system. In a proclet system, transitions and ports can be defined to be configurable elements, and the associated configuration alternatives are proposed correspondingly. Therefore, new proclet systems can be derived by configuration based on the behaviour of the configurable proclet system. The data model can be also derived correspondingly based on the configured proclet system. A running example is presented throughout the paper to illustrate the specification of configurable proclet system modelling and the derivation of new proclet systems.
  Keywords: configurable model; artifact-centric; business process modelling; proclet system.
  
  
• A semantic abstraction criterion to reduce complexity on automatically discovered declarative maps  
  by Pedro Richetti, Fernanda Baião, Flávia Santoro 
  Abstract: A declarative approach can be employed on the definition of constraints that limits process execution possibilities. This perspective is appropriate when dealing with unstructured or flexible processes, a.k.a. knowledge-intensive processes. Declarative process mining may result in complex models owing to the discovery of a high quantity of constraints, producing models with excessive complexity. As abstractions are seen as an effective approach to represent readable models, this work proposes to create language-independent hierarchical declarative maps using a linguistic hierarchy of activities. The proposed approach applies natural language processing to build more abstract declarative models produced by process mining. The presented method was evaluated in a case study with real-life data and support from domain experts. The findings showed that it is possible to generate meaningful groups by looking for the semantics of activity labels in order to create abstract process views with reduced complexity, starting from a low-level declarative map.
  Keywords: process mining; declarative modelling; semantic abstraction; business processes; natural language processing.
  
  
• People management: modelling the work of an ICT team in a coordination and governance organisation of state-owned enterprises  
  by Edna Dias Canedo 
  Abstract: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and people management are crucial to achieve the organisational strategic objectives. In the Secretariat of Coordination and Governance of State-owned Enterprises (SEST), established in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Management, Brazil, there is an ICT governance team allocated to the General Coordination of State Information Management (CGINF), which is responsible for the support and maintenance of structuring ICT services. This team has been working since its creation in August 2016, without detailing the work processes and structuring its positions. Therefore, this study aimed to map the work processes and job structure of the CGINF team, in order to provide a healthy work environment, in which the organisational culture contributes to the efficiency and effectiveness of the work performed. Several processes and sub-processes of work have been mapped that will support the people management from this work environment. The processes were modelled and validated with the responsible teams. This paper will present the main identified processes, which will facilitate team management and achieve greater clarity in the implementation of the activities carried out by them, Although the processes have been validated in a specific context, they may be applied in any state-owned enterprise or organisation, since the best practices of people management are adherent for both private or public companies.
  Keywords: people management; process mapping; organisational productivity; people management policy; skills.
  
  
• Rethinking balanced scorecard for organisational strategy performance management and measurement  
  by Monday Osemeke 
  Abstract: This study focused on designing an effective performance management structure of continuously premeditated standpoints of the balanced scorecard model. The papers objective complements expounding illusion of performance measurement as espoused by eminent scholars. The varied nature of the literature assessment, which was separated into sections, is suggestive of the abundance and usefulness of performance measurement; thus its improvement would be adequately understood. The starting points of all performance measurement initiatives were succinctly studied, then evaluation of performance measurement frameworks was performed. Concise examination of the performance management systems and theoretical evaluation of the developing performance measurement was undertaken. This study revealed that application of a balanced scorecard in organisations involves the entire overhaul of the existing control system and its implementation is a costly task. Based on the exploratory methodology adopted by this study, some further research areas are recommended.
  Keywords: balanced scorecard; organisational strategy; performance management; performance measurement.
  
  
• Investigating the impact of external environment on strategic market planning: a case study for NetSol Technologies Inc.  
  by Shahzeb Zulfiqar, Fayaz Ahmed 
  Abstract: The objective of this paper is to propose a model for effective strategic marketing planning process by investigating the impact of external environmental factors on the international strategic marketing planning of NetSol Technologies, Inc. For an effective marketing strategy to be designed, the analysis of internal and external environment holds crucial importance. Following multiple theoretical approaches, the paper investigates and analyses international strategic marketing planning for NetSol Technologies, Inc. This paper also investigates if this analysis supports these theoretical models. Finally, the paper proposes a strategic marketing planning model that is proposed based on the strategic marketing planning applied by NetSol Technologies during its successful expansion throughout 30 countries. This model is proposed for all industries, primarily the tech industry.
  Keywords: adaptation; standardisation; NetSol; application software; financing and leasing industry; niche market; strategic marketing planning; software industry; model development.
  
  
• Towards a reusable business process modelling approach  
  by Denis Silveira, Eliane Loiola, João Araújo, Ana Moreira, Pedro Fernandes 
  Abstract: In general, model reuse requires specific techniques that provide facilities for model configurations, such as variability modelling. Reuse of business processes is key to have a more efficient way to produce business process models, which are used during requirements elicitation to provide information when developing software to automatise an organisations procedures. A configurable process model represents multiple alternatives of a business process model, identifying its variabilities and commonalities in a business domain. Thus, reuse of business processes models requires techniques to discover benefits from process patterns that preserve semantics after model composition. Current approaches lack systematic and pattern-based mechanisms for the construction of a configurable process model that uses the facilities of feature modelling. This paper defines an approach to build and configure a process-oriented feature model aiming at representing a family of business process models by means of its reusable process modules. Modules may be concrete or abstract, and composed via mandatory, optional, alternative or multiple relationships. The process-oriented feature model captures a business process family, and the configuration process maintains the semantic properties of business process models.
  Keywords: configurable process model; process-oriented feature model; business process family; business process management notation.
  
  
• Business process management: from a critical review to a contemporary ontological entity  
  by George Tsakalidis, Kostas Vergidis 
  Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical foundations of the business process domain and to propose a conceptually unified and agile approach. The authors undertake a systematic examination of literature from a critical perspective on key business process aspects, introduced by the most influential approaches based on their citation impact. The review and interpretation of established business process definitions and the association of structural elements, lead to a conceptual business process structure with clear boundaries and interrelated components that considers business process as an ontological entity. The proposed structure encompasses continuous modification of its design, by acknowledging the particular context and the feedback it generates. Following, a similar analysis of BPM definitions and life-cycles results in matching the most frequently occurring cycle steps on specific components of the proposed structure, thus bridging the gap between business process and BPM life-cycle models. Overall, the review process aims to clarify and connect core business process aspects and the proposed structure and life-cycle to assist organisations in apprehending the various set of stages towards using appropriate and adaptive tools and phases.
  Keywords: business process specification; business process management; BPM life-cycle; critical review.
  
  
• Indonesia terrestrial border control information system and business processes alignment  
  by Fransiskus Tjiptabudi, Raul Bernardino 
  Abstract: Information technology (IT) has enhanced the effectiveness of business processes in all sectors. IT is rapidly developing but is also a technological disruption for industries. The IT professionals' decisions are based on the specific user requirements and needs. Investments are based on business processes and IT alignments. The terrestrial border control system of customs, immigration, and quarantine (CIQ) is still manual. The travellers' passports or pas lintas batas (PLB) documents are collected, based on the customers handwriting on the arrival or departure immigration cards. These is challenging work for the officers in organising the archiving, retrieval of data, and production of reports. This paper proposes the use of AS-IS and TO-BE methodology within the software development lifecycle and aims to produce an effective, efficient, and secure sistem informasi lintas batas wilayah (SINTASWIN) prototype. This prototype application system is user and environmentally friendly, cross-platform, and has a high return on investment.
  Keywords: immigration; CIQ; PLB; AS-IS and TO-BE; SINTASWIN prototype; business process and systems alignment; cross-platform.