Open process innovation : The impact of personnel resource scarcity on the involvement of customers and consultants in public sector BPM

Purpose – Open process innovation – drawing from the literature on open innovation and business process management (BPM) – promotes the study of how to systematically make use of knowledge that lies outside of an organization's boundaries for process‐innovation initiatives. Open innovation has been heavily studied for product innovation; however, process innovation has not yet been researched from such perspective. This paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Against this background, the paper seeks to investigate into variables that impact on the qualities of open process innovation taking the example of the public sector domain. This paper examines how personnel‐resource scarcity exerts influence on the involvement of: customers (here citizens and local companies); and consultants (here management and software consultants) in public sector BPM. Based on the findings, implications for theory and practice are discussed, including implications for studies on BPM maturity or on business process design. Findings – The multi‐method analysis shows that personnel resource scarcity has consequences for BPM‐related collaboration schema as it restricts the involvement of customers. Research limitations/implications – The paper calls for a governance‐theory perspective on process innovation as a fundamental basis for understanding and designing the institutions that shape collaboration in open process innovation. Practical implications – BPM managers find information about potential pitfalls in BPM maturization. Originality/value – The paper provides a conceptualization of open process innovation and integrates the body of literature on open innovation and BPM.