The impact of ERP systems on firm and business process performance

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to provide further insights into the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the impacts on organisational performance. It aims at challenging existing claims of ERP vendors with regard to the benefits of their products and at providing evidence of the benefits of bundling ERPS with supply chain management systems. Design/methodology/approach - A survey was conducted to collect data on several aspects of organisational performance in companies that adopted ERPS and/or SCMS and the respective control groups. Financial key performance indicators were used to measure overall firm performance and the supply-chain operations reference model to operationalise performance at the business process (supply chain) level. Findings - The key results contradict the claims of ERPS vendors insofar as no significant performance differences were found between ERPS adopters and non-adopters, either at the business process level, or at the overall firm level. While it could be confirmed that the longer the experience of firms with ERPS, the higher their overall performance, no evidence was found of a similar effect on business process (supply chain) performance. Only those ERPS adopters that also adopted SCMS achieved significantly higher performance at the business process level. Originality/value - Despite the small size of the SCMS user sample, the results do provide some important insights into the relationships between ERPS, SCMS and performance which might encourage both researchers and practitioners in that field to critically reflect on the "optimal" mix of modules and software packages within increasingly diverse forms of enterprise systems. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

BCL10 is rarely mutated in human prostate carcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, head and neck tumours, renal carcinoma and sarcomas

We have used single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis to screen for mutations in the BCL 10 gene in 81 primary prostate carcinomas, 20 squamous cell cancers of the head and neck, 15 small-cell lung cancer cell lines, 24 renal carcinoma cell lines and 13 sarcoma cell lines. We failed to find evidence of somatically acquired mutations of the BCL10 gene suggesting that BCL 10 does not play a major role in the development of these malignancies

An analysis of the deinstitutionalization of inflation-adjusted accounting practices in Brazilian companies

This article aims to analyze the deinstitutionalization of the inflation-adjustment accounting practices used by large Brazilian companies. The theoretical assumptions used were based on institutional theory, which provides a sociological interpretation of human behavior that recognizes the phenomenon of limited rationality and the political character of social action. Analyses were based on the empirical approach that was proposed by Oliver (1992). The research strategy consisted of questionnaires and interviews conducted in a population of 118 large Brazilian companies from Exame Magazine's list of the 500 largest companies. The primary respondents were accountants and controllers. Factor analysis, one-way ANOVA and the Kruskal-Wallis test were conducted using the approach proposed by Oliver (1992), and the research included 22 variables comprising 12 constructs and 6 qualitative hypotheses regarding the pressures that motivate the deinstitutionalization of inflation-adjusted accounting practices. Therefore, with regard to the constructs assessed, emphasis was placed on identifying the political pressures (the environment) and the functional pressures in both the organizational and environmental dimensions. However, the social pressures did not prove to be significant. We conclude that the process of deinstitutionalization results from a distinct combination of institutional factors, and these results are consistent with the findings from research conducted in the US market and in the UK

The association between technological conditions and the market value of equity

The objective of this study is to provide evidence on how technological innovation conditions underlying the firm's investments drive earnings growth and, hence, market value of equity. Technologies develop and flourish or die out through the combined investment decisions of those firms doing the inventing, and those firms that adopt those inventions, and thereby help to spread (or diffuse) the innovations into wider use. Hence, technology is important for the investment decisions of all firms, regardless of whether they patent. We focus on three aggregate measures of technological innovation conditions: the success rate of past technological investments, technology complexity, and the technology development period. We use the interactions between each of these three conditions with earnings to capture the combined effect on market value of a firm's technological innovation environment. Our sample comprises 12,594 U.S. firm years for the period 1990–2000 including firms actively producing new technologies and firms that adopt technologies for their processes and products. Our primary and additional tests suggest that the interactions capture value-relevant information not reflected in commonly used variables including industry, research and development, sales, general, and administration expenses, risk, and growth. We also triangulate our results by providing evidence that aggregate technological innovation conditions predict future earnings and are, hence, instrumental in the earnings-generation process. This paper extends the valuation literature by (1) developing a generalizable framework that explains how technological innovation conditions link to future earnings and therefore map into the market value of equity; (2) developing aggregate measures of technological innovation conditions that are relevant for estimating future earnings and value for all firms; and (3) providing detailed empirical evidence on the relation between these aggregate measures and the market value of equity and earnings for all firms not just those that patent

Group versus individual compensation schemes for senior executives and firm performance: Some evidence based on archival data

The objectives of this paper are (i) to provide evidence on the association between the choice of group versus individual compensation schemes for senior executives and firm characteristics, and (ii) to provide evidence on the economic consequences of adopting a particular compensation scheme. Our key findings based on 2517 firm years for the period of 2001-2010 show that on average, the choice between group or individual compensation schemes for senior executive compensation schemes are consistent with a firm's economic characteristics and on average, the choice of compensation schemes does not affect subsequent firm performance. However, we find some evidence that firms that adopt compensation schemes inconsistent with their economic characteristics have lower subsequent performance. Our findings are robust to a number of sensitivity tests. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Is continuous disclosure associated with board independence?

This study provides evidence on the association between board composition and different types of continuous disclosure. Our sample is based on a sample of 450 firms for the period 2006-2007. Our experimental design uses both ordinary least-squares (OLS) regressions and two-stage least-squares regressions (2SLS), although the Durbin-Wu-Hausman χ2 test indicates that the OLS results alone would be appropriate. We include the 2SLS results in order to be able to compare the results against previous findings. Our key findings are that there is no association between board composition and different types of continuous disclosure. Our results are robust with respect to alternative variable definitions. © The Author(s) 2012

Economic benefits of enterprise resource planning systems: Some empirical evidence

The present study provides empirical evidence on the economic benefits of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. We use a modified value chain approach and identify several ratios for each component of the value chain to reflect improvements as a result of the adoption of ERP systems. These financial ratios are tracked for 2 years for a group of companies that adopted ERP systems versus a group of companies that did not adopt ERP. Both univariate and multivariate statistics are used to test for differences. The key result of the present study is that the adoption of ERP systems leads to sustained operational efficiencies and improved overall liquidity. In addition, some support is found for increased profitability 2 years after the adoption of ERP and for improvements in accounts receivable management. © AFAANZ, 2005