Effective ERP adoption processes: the role of project activators and resource investments

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate whether stakeholders activating a project shape team building, the structure and magnitude of resource investment levels, and to what extent these levels impact ERP project effectiveness. The process view of an ERP project includes project initiation, system justification and funding, implementation, and early system use. Results from a nationwide empirical survey conducted in Austria (N = 88) show that activating actors influence team formation and resource investments, which impact project effectiveness levels. Resource-intensive justification and funding phases tend to precede resource-intensive implementations in heavy-weight projects, which seem to be less effective than light-weight projects. Resource and change conflicts are associated with lower project effectiveness and are more common in resource-intensive ERP projects, where early system use appears to be relatively less stable. European Journal of Information Systems (2013) 22, 235-250. doi:10.1057/ejis.2012.51; published online 27 November 2012