Business Process Management in Digital and Software Ecosystems: A Systematic Mapping Study

Modern companies need to revisit and constantly improve their business practices in order to remain profitable in the light of the global competition. Digital Ecosystems (DE) have emerged as an innovative approach to business because they transcend traditional collaborative environments towards an interactive digital environment with the intensive participation of diverse external actors. However, adjusting the existing business processes to the digital environment is not simple, especially taking into account the culture of the DE actors and the characteristics of such environment. The same issue applies when the ecosystem is focused on software development as investigated in a Software Ecosystem (SECO). In this context, this study aims to understand how the management of traditional business processes can be applied into DE or SECO management. To this end, a systematic mapping study regarding business process management in DE and SECO is presented. This study is important since it helps researchers and practitioners to understand how these processes can provide inputs for modeling relationships among the DE actors, besides providing support to ecosystem managers. The study confirms that the use of business process management techniques or methods as a support for DE or SECO managers or developers is an emergent field.