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Business process management (BPM) is a management approach that developed with a strong focus on the adoption of information technology (IT). However, there is a growing awareness that BPM requires a holistic organizational perspective especially since culture is often considered a key element in BPM practice. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of existing research on culture in BPM.

This literature review builds on major sources of the BPM community including the BPM Journal, the BPM Conference and central journal/conference databases. Forward and backward searches additionally deepen the analysis. Based on the results, a model of culture's role in BPM is developed.

The results of the literature review provide evidence that culture is still a widely under‐researched topic in BPM. Furthermore, a framework on culture's role in BPM is developed and areas for future research are revealed.

The analysis focuses on the concepts of BPM and culture. Thus, results do not include findings regarding related concepts such as business process reengineering or change management.

The framework provides an orientation for managerial practice. It helps identify dimensions of possible conflicts based on cultural aspects. It thus aims at raising awareness regarding potentially neglected cultural factors.

Although culture has been recognized in both theory and practice as an important aspect of BPM, researchers have not systematically engaged with the specifics of the culture phenomenon in BPM. This literature review provides a frame of reference that serves as a basis for future research regarding culture's role in BPM.

Business process management (BPM) requires a holistic perspective that includes managing the culture of an organization to achieve objectives of efficient and effective business processes. Still, the specifics of a BPM‐supportive organizational culture have not been examined so far. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the characteristics of a cultural setting supportive of BPM objectives.

The paper examines the constituent values of a BPM‐supportive cultural setting through a global Delphi study with BPM experts from academia and practice and explore these values in a cultural value framework.

The paper empirically identifies and defines four key cultural values supporting BPM, viz., customer orientation, excellence, responsibility, and teamwork. The paper discusses the relationships between these values and identifies a particular challenge in managing these seemingly competing values.

The identification and definition of these values represents a first step towards the operationalization (and empirical analysis) of what has been identified as the concept of BPM culture, i.e. a culture supportive of achieving BPM objectives.

Identifying these cultural values provides the basis for developing an instrument that can measure how far an existing cultural context is supportive of BPM. This, in turn, is fundamental for identifying measures towards achieving a BPM culture as a necessary, yet not sufficient means to obtain BPM success.

The paper examines which cultural values create an environment receptive for BPM and, thus, specifies the important theoretical construct BPM culture. In addition, the paper raises awareness for realizing these values in a BPM context.

While researchers and practitioners agree on the importance to adapt business process management (BPM) practices to the nature of processes, the authors observe a lack of research on how to most meaningfully distinguish processes in order to apply context-specific BPM practices that increase process efficiency and effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the nature of processes as one contextual factor for BPM.

Based on a literature review, the authors systematically derive process dimensions that describe the nature of processes and apply an information-processing perspective to the process level as a theoretical lens through which to analyze and structure these process dimensions.

The authors identified 36 dimensions used to describe process differences that can be consolidated into five generic dimensions based on an information-processing perspective: interdependence of process participants, differentiation of process participants, process analyzability, variability, and importance.

The paper derives process dimensions from the literature and links them to extant theories as a foundation for context-sensitive BPM. The findings serve as a basis for further conceptualizing BPM and for explaining seemingly contradicting findings about whether management practices increase or decrease organizational performance.

While the paper focuses on understanding and explaining process differences, the authors also demonstrate how these dimensions can be used to make strategic management decisions in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of processes.

The authors systematically conceptualize process differences as a foundation for contingent process management. In addition, the authors demonstrate that organizational processes provide a new field of application for information-processing theory.

The purpose of this paper is to foster a common understanding of business process management (BPM) by proposing a set of ten principles that characterize BPM as a research domain and guide its successful use in organizational practice.

The identification and discussion of the principles reflects the viewpoint, which was informed by extant literature and focus groups, including 20 BPM experts from academia and practice.

The authors identify ten principles which represent a set of capabilities essential for mastering contemporary and future challenges in BPM. Their antonyms signify potential roadblocks and bad practices in BPM. The authors also identify a set of open research questions that can guide future BPM research.

The findings suggest several areas of research regarding each of the identified principles of good BPM. Also, the principles themselves should be systematically and empirically examined in future studies.

The findings allow practitioners to comprehensively scope their BPM initiatives and provide a general guidance for BPM implementation. Moreover, the principles may also serve to tackle contemporary issues in other management areas.

This is the first paper that distills principles of BPM in the sense of both good and bad practice recommendations. The value of the principles lies in providing normative advice to practitioners as well as in identifying open research areas for academia, thereby extending the reach and richness of BPM beyond its traditional frontiers.