Projects / Programmes
Business transformation - from business models to innovative processes
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.02.00 |
Social sciences |
Economics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S189 |
Social sciences |
Organizational science |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.02 |
Social Sciences |
Economics and Business |
business model, business process management, operations management, social media, change management, innovation
Researchers (9)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Many open questions exist in the fields of business models, organizational change and business process management (BPM). Thus, after decades of research, the academic and practitioner communities still struggle with some basic questions, such as how business models and business process management are connected (DaSilva & Trkman, 2014), what BPM actually is (and what it is not), where is the value of BPM, which BPM activities should the company focus on, how BPM is associated with organizational theories, what is the role of emerging concepts (such as social media) within BPM, and how people should be motivated/involved/managed during BPM efforts. This will lead to the main research questions of our project.
The project will start with a rigorous analysis of the BPM field that will include using a new methodology (see Collichia et al., 2012) to analyze the current state, the development of the field and identify the future trends (within WP1). For a successful change implementation it is vital to understand business models that support innovative changes in a company. It is based on the premise that the proposition value comes from business processes that will lead the customer to get the “job done”. We will investigate how a company can revise its business model, mainly its value proposition based on the results of process analysis.
Implementation of process change inside companies requires a deeper understanding of human behavior with the use of different theories from organization and information management fields. At this stage we will focus on the role of the herding behavior and absorptive capacities (within WP3), the possibilities of social media networks (within WP4), and the effect of behavior issues of individuals on process management and redesign (within WP5).
In the third work package we will first apply the herding behavior theory to understand why (and under what conditions) some employees do or do not join the herd and to explore the relationship between the embeddedness level of BPM practice (within the company) and employee herd behavior. The outcomes of the research will be enhanced via a combination of absorptive capacity and cognitive dissonance theory.
Within WP4 we will investigate another phenomenon, which vastly affects inner-organizational human behavior, namely social media. Social media are becoming increasingly popular as a mean for involving various stakeholders from both within and outside organization, their creativity and opinions. Yet social media are inherently unpredictable, unorganized and hard to control. Our research project will analyze the role of social media within BPM.
In the last work package (WP5) we will focus on a more operational level and will study potentially non-rational actors in the operational context. The research goal in behavioral operations is a deeper understanding of the operations processes (Croson et al., 2013). We will search for a deeper understanding of the behavioral issues that should enable firms to make better decisions and operate more efficiently as well as better predict the intentions, actions, and reactions of agents (Tokar 2010).
The scope of the project is intentionally quite broad and tackles several important issues in various connected fields since breakthrough achievements can only be expected with a rather multidisciplinary approach. The research methods used will include classification of existing literature, using co-citation, qualitative case studies, experiments, conceptual modelling and quantitative surveys. For the purpose of developing new artifacts the design science methodology will be used (Peffers et al., 2007).
References: all references are under Section 13: Detailed description of the work programme.
Significance for science
The research work has brought more important new insights into several areas: business processes management, business models and organizational changes. The results were published and mediated by the research team in several forms: in the form of active independent work and cooperation with foreign researchers, which led to significant group findings, the contribution of knowledge via several conference articles and scientific articles, which were already published in various journals or are currently under review, in workshops and lectures both in Slovenia (for example, in the Summer School of the Faculty of Economics) and abroad (e.g. in China), linking with practice (with case studies or via LikendIn blog), etc., The core contribution of the research is a better understanding of the innovations, in the sense that companies now better understand where (in fact) the innovations are actually needed. In addition, the results enable companies to better understand employee behavior, and new ways of analysis, and how to adapt BPM projects so that changes will have an impact over the long run. Before the start of the project, the research team was already working closely with other international research teams and has already received much attention at international researcher meetings and participated abroad in the form of guest lectures. Taking into account the achievements of this project as an upgrade of the previous work, the members of the research group are actively participating in contributing to existing knowledge even more with the results obtained from this research project.
Significance for the country
The successful realization of the project goals represents a great contribution not only to the promotion of the Economic Faculty itself, but also of the state of Slovenia, with the dissemination of important research results. Also, the research work involved connecting with foreign researchers, gaining access to knowledge abroad, and through lectures and other presentations led to highly qualified staff in Slovenia. The results of the research enable education of personnel who directly bring current knowledge into subjects such as business logistics, optimization in logistics, e-commerce and supply chain computerization at the Faculty of Economics of University of Ljubljana and other participating universities (e.g. University of Liechtenstein, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Queensland University of Technology, DRK Research Institute, Vlerick Business School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa). The role of human resources education is multifaceted, since it extends from the transfer of scientific progress into learning processes, through the education and training of young researchers, to the popularization of scientific advances. In addition, the results of the research project can also be used in applications for projects subsidized by the EU, which will further encourage integration into the international labor division. Several young researchers took part in the project, under the supervision of experienced and internationally recognized researchers, which made it possible to make a significant contribution to the development of their research career. The results of the project were published in various popular media, e.g. LinkedIn blog, bringing them closer to the wider crowd, especially the professional public. Our findings are also useful in the economy - both for medium and large private companies, as well as for public sector organizations. Most research results present new knowledge and examples for providing more effective and successful business practices and consequently improving the Slovenian economy. In addition, it provides an in-depth understanding of how employees behave and make decisions in business processes so that companies can improve the way they manage their employees. In this way, the results of our project also directly affect the satisfaction of the individual and society.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
