| Abstract [eng] |
The main purpose of this master thesis is to identify the possibilities and challenges of assessing business process maturity in Lithuanian social business enterprises by providing a theoretical background on business process maturity and the specificity of business processes in social business enterprises. The work consists of three main parts: a review of the scientific literature, a justification of the research methodology and an analysis of the research results, which is presented together with the developed model for the assessment of business process maturity in social business enterprises. The following methods were used to achieve the purpose of the master thesis: systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature, semi-structured interviews, inductive qualitative content analysis, interpretation and modelling. The analysis of the scientific literature helped to reveal the concepts of the business process and its maturity, the complex concept of social business enterprises and the characteristics of social business enterprises, as well as helped to describe the methodologies and models for assessing the maturity of business processes. Considering the variety of business process maturity assessment models and the lack of analysis of business process maturity of social business enterprises in the scientific literature, a theoretical model of business process maturity assessment of social business enterprises was developed. After the analysis of the scientific literature, the author conducted a qualitative study, the main objective of which was to identify the opportunities and challenges of assessing the maturity of business processes in social business enterprises by analysing the characteristics and processes of social business enterprises. The author used a semi-structured interview approach to assess the suitability of the process and enterprise maturity model for assessing the maturity of business processes in social business enterprises. The study revealed that certain aspects of the process and enterprise maturity model are just as important and relevant for social businesses as for traditional businesses. However, the characteristics of social business enterprises and the specificity of their operations mean that the model is not entirely appropriate for assessing the business process maturity in social business enterprises. The insights gained from the semi-structured interviews and the analysis of the interviews have enabled the adaptation of the process and enterprise maturity model for the business process maturity assessment in social business enterprises. Considering the results of the semi-structured interview analysis and the difficulties in fulfilling the defined research sample, the second part of the study, which was supposed to assess business process maturity of the sampled Lithuanian social business enterprises, was not conducted. Nevertheless, possibilities and challenges were identified for assessing the maturity of business processes in this field. The application of an adapted process and enterprise capability assessment model may be challenging due to the size of social business enterprises, lack of resources, lack of entrepreneurial skills, understanding of process-related concepts, non-use of information systems, process design and specific skills of employees’ challenges. However, opportunities for assessing the maturity of business processes are outlined, including the importance of process definition, the use of metrics, the prevailing process and change approach, the importance of leadership and the significance of processes related to suppliers and customers. The conclusions of the master's thesis summarize the main results of the analysis of the scientific literature and performed qualitative research and provide suggestions for the development of social business enterprises and improvement of their business processes. |
