Adoption of Business Process Orientation Practices : Slovenian and Croatian Survey

Process orientation has been empirically linked to corporate performance. Several studies have shown that more process oriented companies perform better than less process oriented companies. Consequently, many researchers attempted to define what makes a company process oriented, which resulted in numerous frameworks and conceptualizations of process orientation. Based on concepts of business process orientation (BPO) the authors have developed and operationalised a concept of extended BPO to study its adoption in two countries, one EU member and one a candidate for EU membership (Slovenia and Croatia, respectively). Extensive field study has been carried out in these countries. The results of the analysis show that there are many statistically significant differences, namely companies in Slovenia have implemented process oriented practices to a higher degree than their counterparts in Croatia. The paper shows the main differences in BPO areas and practices.