زیرساخت های فن آوری اطلاعات، طراحی مجدد فرایند سازمانی، و ارزش کسب و کار : تجزیه و تحلیل تجربی

We extend current research examining synergies between information technology, process redesign, and firm performance in three ways: analyze a firm's entire IT and BPR portfolio, examine production and market value performance implications, and conduct analysis using a unique dataset of 228 firms between 1996 and 1999. We find a contingent association between IT, process redesign, and performance. The interaction of IT and BPR portfolios is positively associated with firm productivity and market value. However, we find mixed evidence of a difference in these impacts across different types of BPR. Insights for business investment in IT and process redesign are discussed.

Business process redesign (BPR) is an approach to improving organizational performance that focuses on business processes and their efficiency [30], [46] and [47]. The concept has evolved from its reengineering roots into today's process-based approach to organizational change (e.g., quality management, human resource management, and customer relationship management) [3], [18] and [64]. The promise of substantial financial gain has motivated numerous firms across a wide range of industries to adopt major process change initiatives [20], [69] and [71], with some achieving significant benefits [7] and [69]. However, documented rates of redesign failure are also high, with some estimates as large as 70% [47]. Collectively, the conflicting evidence of both BPR success and failure has led to a “paradox of BPR outcomes,” warranting further investigation to assist managers in their evaluation of process change opportunities [43]. The variability in BPR success is rooted in many factors, including the challenge of implementing information technology to support process redesign. Information technology is often a central component of BPR and at times is promoted as a key motivator for the change itself [46] and [47]. Continued innovation in IT and its capabilities implies that IT's role in process redesign is not likely to diminish. Case-based research illustrates specific challenges to successful process change and how to overcome them. However, it remains unclear whether IT-enabled process change, examined across large numbers of organizations, is a rational investment for firms. In addition, there is a deficiency in knowledge concerning the interplay between business process redesign, information technology, and organizational performance at the program-level (i.e., across all projects in a firm). In this paper, we contribute to the literature by analyzing the interplay between process redesign, information technology, and organizational performance. At any given time, a single organization may have many process redesign efforts underway. Cigna, for instance, completed 20 reengineering initiatives over a five-year span [21]. While examining the value generated from individual process redesign projects is informative, the single-project approach does not indicate whether all BPR projects in a firm, taken together, are positively associated with firm performance. Moreover, evaluating a single project in each organization may introduce bias given the likelihood of within-firm heterogeneity in process redesign success. Our unique data set, collected by the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California, contains information about an organization's entire portfolio of redesign projects. This allows us to comprehensively evaluate the performance impact of the BPR method in firms, contributing to an existing research stream which primarily examines BPR across only one or a few individual projects. We examine two related research questions. First, do the outcomes of all projects in a firm's process redesign portfolio impact the firm's overall performance? Second, what is the contribution of information technology to the performance improvement generated by a firm's process redesign portfolio? We analyze these questions in depth by using a unique dataset of firms spanning multiple years and industries, assessing performance via productivity and market value, a performance measure not previously examined in BPR literature. We also introduce two principal categories of process redesign – cost rationalization aimed at doing more with less and work restructuring aimed at implementing new business processes – as part of our analysis. Taken together, our research contributes to the literature through its analysis of a firm's entire portfolio of BPR projects, an assessment of their performance impacts including market value, and a detailed examination of two widely adopted types of BPR. Our evaluation of the comprehensive impact from a firm's BPR program is both relevant and timely. Spending on process change projects is expected to reach over $6 billion annually within the next four years. Given the mixed results of previous research, our study provides new information that will inform managers in their evaluation of BPR spending at the program-level. Moreover, information technology has long been promoted as a central tenet of process redesign [46] and [47] with current forms of process change continuing the call for IT investment (e.g., business process management) [22] and [28]. Our research allows us to examine if IT is indeed essential for effective BPR implementation. Several principal results emerge from our empirical analysis. First, the combination of information technology and process redesign is found to be synergistic. Both the value added during production and the market value of a firm are positively and significantly affected by the interaction of a firm's information technology and BPR portfolios. Second, when examining the IT-BPR relationship further, we identify variations in performance impacts depending upon the focus of process redesign. When independently examining the combination of IT and BPR focusing on work restructure, we find evidence of a positive performance association with respect to production and market values. On the other hand, when analyzing IT and cost rationalization BPR, we find evidence of a positive and significant relationship with production value but not market value. We also find a difference in the incremental impacts of high versus low levels of BPR use. Whether it is high levels of cost rationalization or work restructure, the IT-BPR combination has a negative incremental impact on firm market value. In contrast, no incremental change in production value is identified for different usage levels of either type of BPR. The mixed results are not surprising given the wide range of process redesign initiatives and multiplicity of contexts. Rather than indicating that combined investment in information technology and BPR is not fruitful, as a benefit does not occur uniformly, our analysis suggests that firms can take advantage of IT by taking into account the requirements of the BPR selected. In other words, rational managers must select the right type of information technology based upon a firm's process redesign goals, regardless of the type of BPR involved. Taken together, the results support our basic proposition that process redesign and IT are synergistic and provide a rational investment opportunity for enabling strategic organizational change. In the next section we describe theoretical foundations and develop research hypotheses. We then explicate our research methodology, including data sources, theoretical models, and empirical methods. We then discuss empirical results, summarize key findings, and discuss implications.

In this study, we conduct a unique examination of the impacts of the interaction of IT and process redesign. First, we examine the impacts of a firm's entire BPR portfolio – accounting for every BPR project in a firm versus the more limited scope of early firm-level studies – by adapting a framework of BPR from prior research [56]. Second, we examine the impact of the IT-BPR interaction to a firm's production efficiency as well as its market value. The latter is an outcome measure new to the BPR literature. Third, based upon a previous theoretical model, we examine the performance impacts of different intermediate-level BPR outcomes; work restructure and cost rationalization. Overall, the empirical results are consistent with the basic proposition of synergies between process redesign and information technology (Table 8). Analysis concerning splits by degree of use, type of performance impact, and type of redesign provides mixed support.The research results suggest several implications for practice. First, managers should consider investment in IT and process redesign as a means for improving firm performance. In the short term, managers can improve performance, especially production efficiency, by focusing on how work is structured in the firm. Second, for longer term market impacts, our results suggest that managers should be more conservative with their change efforts. Rather than attempting to implement a large amount of change across the firm concurrently, process redesign can be more effective if an organization implements change (cost or work focus) that is more manageable in scope. For example, a firm is better off using IT to help automate new process designs in a more targeted, focused manner rather than through a more shotgun, broad level approach. Our results also suggest that IT is a necessary complement to process redesign efforts. Positive and significant payoffs from BPR only appear in situations where IT is implemented jointly with process redesign (i.e., the interaction of IT and BPR). For managers, this does not mean that process change cannot be accomplished without information technology. Rather, it identifies the combination of IT and process redesign as a potential recipe for bringing about positive corporate change. It is possible that managers have been guided by BPR evangelists and have created the necessity of IT through the types of BPR projects selected. However, it is important to acknowledge that process change can come about without information technology and managers should broaden their consideration of how process change is accomplished even if it does not involve information technology. For example, communication flows are critical for successful BPR [55] and must be designed appropriately whether or not IT is a component of the BPR project. Finally, our research bolsters recent managerial focus on process-oriented programs as a means for organizational success. Managers should recognize that such efforts (e.g., business process management) should focus on how processes are structured as the primary means for change. Finally, our analysis suggests several implications for research. First, the use of additional BPR measures would refine and extend our results, for example, metrics focused on quality or environmental sustainability.15 Second, using more recent datasets is important to confirm results found herein. Third, using more granular metrics for information technology, such as e-commerce or Web 2.0 would refine our results. Fourth, research identifying the complements to process redesign and potential influential factors, like a firm's competitive environment [60], is especially critical. Finally, future research might also examine process change spanning multiple national economies, especially those that are home to offshoring services that support U.S. corporations.