Process performance management as a basic concept for sustainable business process management - Empirical investigation and research agenda

Abstract

Sustainable development, the sustainable organization and sustainability strategies are all terms that are being intensely discussed in the business community just now. Nonetheless, the concept of sustainability still remains vague. Especially its meaning and implications for the field of Business Process Management (BPM) are as of yet by and large unclear. In this paper we set out to advance the understanding of economic sustainability in the context of BPM. We argue that Process Performance Management (PPM) represents a basic approach for establishing and maintaining economic sustainability in BPM. Although the economic dimension of sustainability is commonly believed to have the highest maturity an empirical investigation reveals that organizations are experiencing major difficulties with its implementation(in particular on a process level. Based on the findings, we propose a research agenda for future research efforts in this field. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.