Development of a Model to Understand How Consultants Manage Conflicts during ERP Change Process: A Dialectic Perspective

ERP implementation and post-implementation initiatives involve changes and thus are regarded as ERP change processes. Conflicts due to various stakeholders’ engagement regularly arise in such a change process. Consultants can help mediate many of these conflicts, but their contribution in managing conflicts is not adequately understood. The aim of this research-in-progress paper is thus to develop a theory-driven model to understand how ERP consultants manage conflicts during ERP change process. The dialectic perspective is used as appropriate theoretical lens which could potentially provide valuable and rich insights into understanding the broader ERP change process phenomenon

Enterprise Systems in the Public Sector: A Literature Review

Despite a huge repository of work on enterprise systems (ES) that are widely used across different industries in the private sector, there is a scarcity of publications on this topic in the context of the public sector. Moreover, an assessment about the current research landscape on ES in the context of the public sector is virtually nonexistent. In this study, we address this gap by reviewing 31 academic papers on ES in the public sector. In our analysis, we examine the research focus, research approach and theoretical foundation. Then, by synthesizing the recommendations for the prospective projects, we propose several promising avenues for the future research. Overall, our literature review confirms that this research stream is still in its early stage and much more research efforts need to be dedicated

Yet Another ‘List’ Of Critical Success ‘Factors’ For Enterprise Systems: Review Of Empirical Evidence And Suggested Research Directions (2)

Critical Success Factors (CSF) remain the most-researched areas within the Enterprise Systems (ES) domain over the years and has resulted in a long ‘list’ of such factors. Consequently, many ‘factors’ are not more than ‘variables’ belonging to the same management area. Therefore, this paper argues for going back to the original definition of CSFs as few key areas and reviews empirical evidence in each CSF area. Thereafter, the paper notes other limitations of the CSF literature and suggests research directions to provide a deeper explanation of the ES phenomena. These include tracing CSFs across time, taking a change-centric view of the ES lifecycle, unpacking interrelationship among CSFs, paying attention to the implementation context, and moving from a list of CSFs to the identification of their underlying mechanisms. We hope that our suggestions will provide a roadmap to ES researchers on conducting focussed research on CSFs

Organizational Transition to Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Theoretical Choices for Process Research

The number of organizations implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions is rapidly increasing. Transition to ERP systems is often combined with a business process reengineering effort and intended to produce radical organizational change. Prior to conducting research on ERP transition, researchers need to become aware of the theoretical choices available to guide their studies. In this paper, three dimensions of process theories used to explain organizational change are identified: form, motor, and theoretical content. Whereas form deals mainly with the amount and frequency of change, motor refers to the mechanisms explaining how and why change unfolds, and theoretical content consists of specific constructs and their interactions that produce change. In order to make complete theoretical choices, researchers should consider all three dimensions of change in the design of their research. The three dimensions are combined in a framework that can guide research on ERP-related organizational transition. 1

Crossing the chasm between industrial and software companies

Very few of the enterprise resource programme implementations put into action manage to meet their requirements satisfyingly yet the critical failure factors as well as critical success factors have been studied very narrowly. The role and the point of view of the employees who use the software has not been studied extensively throughout this operation and possibly holds some answers. To discover whether there is a gap in understanding from the software developers to the final users of the programme, a thorough inspection into the past research was required to gather a holistic picture. The objective was to define this gap in understanding and define what it would mean if it was there. The numbers of the failed and struggling implementations of different ERPs are too high to be accountable by the previously claimed issues such as cultural differences, top management support and ERP vendor support. These factors play a big role between complete failures and successful implementations by the vendors’ standards but are still far from the desired benefits desired within the procuring companies. A possible solution to the issue of implementing and operating an ERP better might lie on the software side of things instead of on the procuring companies. Gamification is a rising topic in many software fields and has already begun to show in the ERPs as well. Future studies are needed to test the real potential this newish field of software promises

The Roles of IS Project Critical Success Factors: A Relevatory Case

Research in Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Enterprise Systems (ES) projects has identified numerous practitioner governance mechanisms for ensuring project success. However, such research has not developed a theory of why certain critical success factors encourage project success. Our research develops such theory on a case study where even though the levels of several critical success factors were weak, the project nevertheless succeeded. Specifically, the logistics ES project succeeded even though there was (1) only marginal top management support, (2) low key user commitment, and (3) change management, training and other critical aspects of user management and communication were not well done. Using a modified dialectical lens, we highlight that project team legitimacy appears to be the underlying CSF, and many heretofore identified CSFs are really manifestations of project team legitimacy

Digital Transformation of Global Business Processes: The Role of Dual Embeddedness

While much existing research on MNC digital transformation has followed a linear design and implementation logic using cross-sectional data, the multiple and divergent needs of headquarters (HQ) and subsidiaries suggest that MNC digital transformation actually involves a more iterative journey. In this paper, we apply the theoretical perspective of embeddedness to better define the complexities of MNC digital transformation, and identify how HQ and subsidiaries can navigate the complexities. This paper presents a longitudinal multi-case study of five Forbes Global 2000 firms that are HQ in Europe with large subsidiaries in the U.S. We find that the process of digital transformation is significantly influenced by internal embeddedness (relationship of HQ with subsidiaries and across subsidiaries) and external embeddedness (relationship of subsidiaries with their local markets), and also by strategy, financial and technology considerations. While HQ and subsidiaries have different perspectives, an understanding of these influences can help HQ and subsidiaries navigate digital transformation