Track description n°20

Business Process Management and Digital Innovation

Track Chairs

Anna Maria Oberländer

University of Bayreuth

Anna is a Junior Professor for Information Systems and Digital Transformation at the University of Bayreuth as well as Deputy Academic Director of the Research Center Finance & Information Management. She also works in a leading position in the Branch Business & Information Systems Engineering of Fraunhofer FIT, where she is co-heading a research group and managing the Digital Innovation Lab as one of the co-founders.

Anna’s research interests centre around digital transformation, digital innovation, and emerging digital technologies such as the (industrial) Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence from human-centric and sustainability perspectives. She publishes regularly in internationally renowned journals (e.g., Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information & Management, Business & Information Systems Engineering) and conferences (e.g., International Conference on Information Systems, European Conference on Information Systems, Wirtschaftsinformatik).

Djordje Djurica

Vienna University of Economics and Business

Djordje.djurica@wu.ac.at

Djordje is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Information Systems and Society at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna).

Djordje’s research focuses on human interaction with process mining visualizations and conceptual models, how these models can be improved using cognitively effective techniques. He often utilizes experimental method and frequently uses eye tracking and user surveys.

His work has been published in European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, and Empirical Software Engineering, as well as in proceedings of BPM, HICSS, and AMCIS. He also organizes a workshop at ICPM conference and serves as a PC member at BPM and BPMDS conferences.

Iris Beerepoot

Utrecht University

i.m.beerepoot@uu.nl

Iris Beerepoot is an assistant professor in the Process Science research group at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on using a variety of research methods to study work processes in organizations and the extent to which this work is supported by and recorded in information systems. Her work has been published in the proceedings of leading conferences such as BPM, ICPM, ICIS, and ECIS, as well as in journals such as BISE, Computers in Industry, Information Technology and Management, and the Journal of Biomedical Informatics. She served on several organizing and program committees at BPM and ICPM, was awarded the BPM runner-up best dissertation award, and won an outstanding reviewer award at ECIS for two consecutive years. She also organized workshops at ECIS and BPM and acted as a guest editor for a BISE special issue on ‘Exploring the (Mis)Match Between Real-World Processes and Event Data’.

This track invites contributions that explore the dynamic and increasingly interdependent relationship between Business Process Management (BPM) and Digital Innovation (DI). With organizations striving to remain competitive in an environment shaped by rapid technological progress, socio-economic uncertainties, and sustainability challenges, the fusion of BPM and DI is not only timely but essential. BPM, traditionally associated with improving organizational efficiency and operational excellence, is now being reimagined as a key enabler of digital innovation and transformation. Conversely, digital innovation challenges conventional BPM assumptions, offering new ways to conceptualize, design, and enact business processes.

We particularly welcome studies that investigate how emerging digital technologies—such as process mining, robotic process automation (RPA), generative / agentic AI, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—are transforming exploitative and explorative BPM activities. How do these technologies change the way we design, automate, analyze, and evolve business processes? How do they support organizations in simultaneously optimizing existing processes and creating innovative digital solutions?

A central concern of this track is the human-centricity of digital innovation in business process contexts. We are keen to attract studies that examine novel forms of hybrid work and co-creation between human actors and non-human, AI-based agents. This includes ethical, regulatory, and design challenges, especially in light of recent developments such as the European Union’s AI Act, which foregrounds trustworthy and human-centric AI.

We invite both conceptual and empirical research, including case studies, design science research, and theory-driven investigations, that offer novel insights into the mutual shaping of BPM and DI. Interdisciplinary work that integrates perspectives from Information Systems, Organizational Studies, and Management Science is particularly encouraged, as this helps develop a more holistic understanding of business process innovation in digitally-enabled organizations.

Track topics

We welcome submissions on a range of topics, including but not limited to:

How does the digital age, in particular DI and digital transformation, challenge established BPM assumptions?
How can BPM contribute to sustainable digital futures and address grand societal challenges?
How can organizations design human-centric digital process innovation and innovation processes?
How can processes be designed to support hybrid co-creation between human and AI agents?
How can business processes balance efficiency with other value propositions such as sustainability, resilience, or ethics?
What roles do digital technologies play in enabling digital innovation and transformation in BPM contexts?
How do technologies like process mining, RPA, and AI support explorative BPM?
How do we need to rethink the concept of a “business process” in digital platform and ecosystem contexts?
How can BPM support innovation management and digital transformation processes?
How can BPM act as a boundary-spanning practice between IS, Management, and Organizational Research?
How do individuals (designers, managers, workers) interact with digital innovation in BPM contexts?
How can BPM enhance organizational resilience and adaptability in response to crises or disruption?
What does ambidextrous BPM look like in practice—and how can it be achieved?
How do data-driven approaches reshape the way organizations design, test, and scale processes?

Submissions addressing other novel or emerging themes at the intersection of BPM and DI are also welcome.

Relevance and Timeliness:

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in publications and conference tracks devoted to digital transformation, AI integration, and process innovation across leading IS venues, including ICIS, HICSS, and BPM. However, much of this work treats BPM and DI as distinct domains. ECIS 2026 provides a timely opportunity to foreground the interdependence of these fields and to create a dedicated space for scholarly exchange on their convergence.

The rise of generative AI, ongoing shifts toward data-centric and automated operations, and the regulatory push toward ethical, human-centered innovation (e.g., EU AI Act) create fertile ground for rethinking how processes are designed, managed, and transformed. Furthermore, as businesses navigate uncertainties stemming from geopolitical tension, environmental concerns, and societal expectations, BPM and DI jointly offer crucial tools for building resilient and future-ready organizations.

By offering this track at ECIS 2026, we aim to foster a vibrant, interdisciplinary dialogue that not only advances theoretical understanding but also has strong implications for practice, policy, and education.

Publishing Opportunities in Leading Journals

The intersection of Business Process Management (BPM) and Digital Innovation (DI) has garnered increasing attention in high-quality academic outlets across Information Systems, Management, and Organizational Research. Given the relevance, interdisciplinarity, and timeliness of the proposed track, contributions presented here will be well positioned for submission to a range of leading journals.

In particular, papers developed from this track may be suitable for:

Information Systems Journal (ISJ)
European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS)
Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)
Journal of Information Technology (JIT)
Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE)
Information & Management

The themes of the track—such as the role of emerging technologies in business process transformation, human-AI collaboration, sustainability and resilience in BPM, and the rethinking of process design in digital ecosystems—closely align with several current calls for papers and editorial priorities in these outlets, e.g.:

JAIS: Contemporary Innovation in Information Infrastructures
ISJ: Understanding Resistance to Digital Transformation
Information Systems: AI-Enhanced Business Process Management
Process Science: Artificial Intelligence and Processes

Moreover, the track supports the development of interdisciplinary, theoretically grounded, and methodologically diverse research, which matches the expectations of top-tier journals that are increasingly calling for contributions that bridge IS with adjacent fields like organizational theory, strategy, and operations management.