ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION AS ROUTINE CAPABILITY : A LITERATURE REVIEW

摘要

Organisations have started to implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to improve process efficiency and to advance business process management (BPM) practise. However, literature tends to study RPA from a limited technical view and thus, we have not yet gained a sufficient understanding of how RPA advances BPM practises. To mitigate this gap, we conduct a literature review and analyse 13 reported cases of RPA through the lens of technology as routine capability (Swanson 2019). The results indicate that a few early adopters have implemented RPA. RPA creates new “machine” routines and become integral of humans’ new routines. RPA as routine capability does advance practises in individual, organisational and social levels though we only have evidence from the 13 cases found in literature. The evidence also indicates that changes of RPA are intertwined in the four modes: design, execution, diffusion and shift. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of how RPA changes and cultivate routine capability and advanced BPM practises. In addition, we apply and critically examine technology as routine capability as the analytical framework for understanding how RPA advance BPM practise.