Discovering the Internet of Things (IoT) : Technology and Business Process Management, Inside and Outside the Innovative Firms

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a disruptive technology increasingly influencing the daily life, the business world and even the global economy. In a nutshell, the IoT can be considered a family of technologies whose purpose is to make any type of object, even without a digital "nature", a device connected to the Internet, likely to take advantage of all the features owned by the objects born to use the network, like the functionality for monitoring and control. Beyond the attention the IoT applications are receiving for consumers and end users (such as the monitoring of personal health, fitness devices or automation), it is reasonable to expect that most of the value materializes in B2B, especially in the manufacture, distribution, infrastructure management and resources. Finally it results in new consumer products and services available to citizens, but the justification of investment in IoT are found mainly in the industrial environment. This e-book took inspiration from the observation of this scenario. Its primary research goal has been to investigate both the impact and the role of the IoT on the business process management in terms of promotion of knowledge flow, innovation and competitiveness. Furthermore, the papers selected for this volume aimed at understanding how the IoT fosters innovation within organizations and which implication this phenomenon can have on the competitiveness of the firms and on its business process management.