Do National Culture and Organizational Development Affect the Effectiveness of ERP Implementation? A Tale of Two Cultures: US versus China

As many US and European companies have implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems, most of the previous implementation studies have tended to focus on companies from more developed countries. This research points out that there is need for academics and practitioners to “take stock,” to examine what is happening in broad terms across organizations in the ERP implementation process, and to consider whether cultural differences in the U.S. when compared to another culture can impact the process. In this study, we are concerned with several issues surrounding current ERP implementation status and report initial findings from managers in a wide variety of organizations in the U.S. and China on their experiences with ERP implementation and attempt to suggest implications. Our findings center upon cultural differences, especially in the reported context surrounding ERP implementation in the two cultures. Moreover, we report that there is evidence for differences in ERP complexity and implementation extensiveness in the two cultures. Finally, we find some evidence for differences in reported outcomes. We include suggestions for future research