Knowledge Dynamics and Domain Expertise in Enterprise Information Systems Implementation: An Introductory Study

Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) have become the core information processing architecture of large businesses. This study examines the role of Knowledge Social Networks (KSN) in facilitating EIS-related knowledge acquisition accounting for the domain expertise of knowledge sources, its interplay with user task complexity, and their impact on EIS implementation. While research on KSNs has considered knowledge relationship ties, both for knowledge acquisition and dissemination, and their impact on knowledge outcomes and employee performance, it has not addressed the domain expertise of knowledge sources within KSNs and the quality of resultant knowledge flows. Data for the study was collected six months after the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning system. Preliminary results indicate that while knowledge acquisition through KSNs is important, the task complexity of users and domain expertise of knowledge sources need to be considered, especially for users dealing with complex business problems

Strategies to Obtain Maximum Usage of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

Business organizations invest significant resources implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, yet some organizations utilize less than 75% of the ERP system capabilities. The purpose of this single-site case study was to explore ERP utilization strategies implemented by 4 managers in the information technology (IT) department from 1 organization that uses an ERP system in the Midwest region of the United States. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was the user participation theory. Data were collected through participant interviews and analyzed using traditional text analysis. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretation of the participants\u27 responses. The emergent themes from the study were user participation, user involvement, user attitude, user system satisfaction, and user preparation. The most prominent utilization strategies identified by the participants related to the user participation theme. The implications for positive social change include the potential optimization of benefits from the ERP system that could allow the organization\u27s leaders to direct their resources to causes that can improve the health and welfare of the geographic population in the operational region

Multidimensional Knowledge Flow Dynamics in Context

Knowledge is a sustainable advantage and knowledge assets can increase value with use. A snowball effect of knowledge advantage advocates effective knowledge management and fosters its continual growth as it flows. Knowledge, however, flows unevenly throughout an organization and the problem is that the fundamental dynamics of these flows are still not well characterized in theoretical and computational models. This study built on existing work—knowledge-flow theory, need knowledge generation, and the critical success factors for enterprise resource planning implementation—to examine the multidimensional knowledge-flow phenomenon in context, and used the case study methodology for knowledge-flow theory building. The research question was two-pronged: how can need knowledge and its flow across stakeholders within an organization be explained using a multidimensional knowledge-flow model and how can Nissen’s five-dimensional knowledge-flow model be validated using a real-life immersion case? The researcher relied on three sources of evidence for this case study: project-related documentation, archival records, and interviews. Data triangulation yielded three results components: (a) a chronology of key events that obstructed knowledge flow, (b) a logic model depicting themes that contributed to knowledge-flow obstruction, and (c) explanations of the knowledge-flow patterns. This case study suggested enabling need knowledge determinants and obstructing conditions are in play that determine the path of need knowledge flow. These two research artifacts should be considered together to provide a fresh research avenue towards better understanding of knowledge flow dynamics

Strategies for Implementing a Successful Enterprise Resource Planning System

The U.S. Department of Defense executives consider enterprise resource planning systems as a critical technology because of increasingly global operations and audit compliance pressures, which may affect organizational performance and overall success. The estimated cost to implement enterprise resources systems to avoid failure and meet budget cost across the Department of Defense services and agencies has ranged from $530 million to$2.4 billion. Guided by the general systems theory, the purpose of this single-case study was to explore enterprise resource planning strategies developed and implemented by United States Marine Corps military leaders. Data collection consisted of a review of organizational documents and semistructured interviews of 5 organizational leaders in a United States Marine Corps base in Albany, Georgia. Data analysis entailed interview transcription, keyword and phrase coding, and emergent theme identification. The prominent emergent themes were essential strategic planning guidance and organizational leaders and change management, which are the essential components for effectively implementing enterprise resource planning systems. The Department of Defense executives and senior leaders may use the findings of this study to develop an essential strategic plan, which could reduce the excessive cost and over-budget associated with enterprise resource planning systems. Social change implications include enhancing end user knowledge and reducing inefficiencies within organizations to improve corporate social responsibility

Exploring Knowledge Management Models on Information Technology Projects

One way an organization manages the knowledge of its people is in information technology (IT) projects. Organizations develop IT projects for many socially responsible reasons, including improved health care services and better community services. IT projects do not always achieve the goals of the organization when the knowledge of the stakeholders is not managed for these objectives. For this study the purpose was to address the use of knowledge management (KM) in project management (PM) to improve the success of IT projects in achieving the organizational goals. The research questions were based on KM including its tools and techniques to improve the success rate for IT projects. The conceptual framework included the project knowledge management (PKM) model, which helped identify the knowledge sharing in IT software projects for a local insurance company in Baltimore, Maryland. Interview data were collected from 26 IT project stakeholders about KM in PM. Analysis revealed 4 themes of managing knowledge in the requirement process, code development process, testing process, and the helpdesk process for the success of the IT project. Each of the 4 processes used different KM repositories and face-to-face tools. Improving the rate of successful IT projects benefits organizations and society with better products and services for lower costs. This study may affect social change by providing information for managers of other organizations about achieving success of their IT projects

A multiple case study of ERP system implementations in Australia

The plethora of business benefits that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can potentially deliver has led to an unprecedented level of ERP systems adoption by business organisations in the last decade, resulting in a global market value of US$32 billion in 2016. While ERP systems are reputed for their many beneficial outcomes, both tangible and intangible, ERP implementation is also well-known to be full of challenges, generating organisational-wide disruptions. Not all adopters have been able to reap the anticipated ERP benefits, despite the huge investments they expended on ERP implementations. Though an extensive range of studies exists on how organisational factors, such as change management, organisational inertia, organisational learning and innovation, affect ERP implementation outcomes, few have examined how these factors interact with one another to drive ERP benefits. Fewer still have related the benefits achieved to the interactions between organisational factors. One of the reasons has been attributed to the reliance on cross-sectional analysis, such as focusing exclusively on evaluating post-implementation outcomes using finance and/or operational data, without accounting for the “lag and learning” process of ERP adoption. More importantly, the social dimension of ERP implementation has been given scant attention. This research explores the contributory role of organisational factors, covering both the technical and social aspects, in generating benefits from ERP implementation. Using a qualitative multiple case study approach, it investigated the ERP implementation journey of nine Australian companies that spanned systems acquisition to system extension post-implementation. Specifically, the study examined how the nine case organisations undertook change management, engaged in organisational learning and strategic innovations to derive a host of ERP-related benefits, both expected and unexpected. Expecting a disparate range of implementation tactics being employed by these companies, this study drew on the tenets of the Contingency Theory complemented by the Competing Value Framework (CVF) to address two research questions: • How do ERP adopting organisations respond to the contingent factors to secure ERP system benefits? What proactive actions do they take? • What has been the range of benefits achieved by ERP adopting organisations? How and why do these benefits change over time? This research is grounded on the epistemological belief that understanding social process warrants penetrating into the world of those generating it, which forms the undergirding principle of interpretivism. The study comprised two main stages. Stage One involved i) identifying and selecting business organisations that had implemented an ERP system, which went live recently, as case study candidates; ii) interviewing ERP managers with first-hand knowledge of the entire ERP implementation process; and iii) thematically coding the interview transcripts using hermeneutic principles. Stage Two was the data analysis, which consisted of a within-case analysis and a cross-case comparison. The within-case analysis unearthed 10 contingent constructs that underpinned the ERP implementation process of the nine case companies. The cross-case comparison led to the formulation of an ERP implementation process model that links the ERP implementation constructs to the benefits generated at different stages of the implementation. Putting the range of ERP benefits onto the CVF framework, this study offers seven working propositions for theory building. This study contributes to theory development in ERP implementation in three ways. First, by examining the ERP implementation process of organisations through the combined lens of contingency theory and CVF, this study has revealed how organisational factors can impact the types of ERP benefits derived at different implementation stages as well as post-implementation. Second, it developed a process model that shows how the benefit drivers embedded within the organisational factors interact to create opportunities for organisational learning and innovation, and promote a fit between the ERP technology, business and endusers. The process model could also serve as an ERP project implementation guide to aid project teams to manage changes, offering a tool for practitioners to direct appropriate resources to maximise the benefits expected during ERP implementation, optimise the ERP system capabilities and avoid costly unproductive expenditure. Lastly, grounded on the implementation experience of nine organisations, the working propositions derived offer basic building blocks for developing a theory of benefit-oriented ERP implementation management