Science Mapping the Research of Business Process Management: Patterns and Implications for Comparable Information Technology Fields

Abstract

This paper maps the research and maturity of the Business Process Management (BPM) scientific field by using existing literature reviews and bibliographic methods to formulate generalizable patterns and implications, which could be proposed for comparable, multi-disciplinary Information Technology (IT) fields. By applying text mining to the corpus of BPM conference and journal papers, systematically selected from Scopus, generalizable drivers of BPM evolution and maturity are determined, including the proposal of implications for comparable IT fields. Results showed four literature clusters, which relate reasonably well with the BPM lifecycle and PDCA/PDSA cycle concepts. BPM and the comparable research fields seem to be driven by the maturing of technological capabilities and organizational acceptance in the sectors in which they are heavily applied. This study comprehensively analyzes BPM journal articles and conference proceedings using the bibliometric analysis to provide new research directions.