On Theoretical Foundations of Empirical Business Process Management Research

Business Process Management (BPM) has gained considerable importance in research and practice in recent years and has become one of the currently mostly discussed fields of research in the Information Systems (IS) discipline. BPM research aims to develop innovative methods and techniques for the management of business processes in the first place and, moreover, to build and further develop theory, which is an important objective of every scientific discipline. The state of theory is commonly considered a significant indicator for the maturity and grounding of a field of research. This article investigates theoretical foundations of empirical BPM research based on conceptual considerations and a review of empirical BPM literature. Our analysis shows that empirical BPM research is only to a certain extent guided by existing theory. Furthermore, the investigated contributions often refer to theories originating from different other fields of research, like economics or sociology. Implications and the potential of dedicated BPM theory development by means of empirical research are discussed.

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