Structuring Empirical Research on Process Mining at the Individual Level Using the Theory of Effective Use

Abstract

A growing number of empirical papers on the topic of process mining has been published in years. After a first wave of contributions on application scenarios, there has been a second wave aiming to establish theoretical insights into how process mining tools are used and how benefits unfold from this usage. Many of these papers follow an explorative, qualitative, or inductive approach. A weakness of these contributions is their theoretical cohesion and integration. This paper makes an effort to integrate them into a more holistic theory that can eventually provide a foundation for more deductive and quantitative empirical research on process mining. To this end, we build on the theory of effective use and focus on the individual effect on decision makers. We find opportunities for revision and refinement of this theory for process mining. Specifically, we discuss moving from constructs on learning to expertise, and integrating a pragmatic perspective that complements the semantic emphasis of representational fidelity.