An innovation-diffusion view of implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and development of a research model

Firms around the world have been implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems since the 1990s to have an uniform information system in their respective organizations and to reengineer their business processes. Through a case type analysis conducted in six manufacturing firms that have one of the widely used ERP systems, various contextual factors that influenced these firms to implement this technology were understood using the six-stage model proposed by Kwon and Zmud. Three types of ERP systems, viz. SAP, Baan and Oracle ERP were studied in this research. Implementation of ERP systems was found to follow the stage model. The findings from the process model were used to develop the items for the causal model and in identifying appropriate constructs to group those items. In order to substantiate that the constructs developed to measure the causal model were congruent with the findings based on qualitative analysis, i.e. that the instrument appropriately reflects the understanding of the case interview; 'triangulation' technique was used. The findings from the qualitative study and the results from the quantitative study were found to be equivalent, thus, ensuring a fair assessment of the validity and reliability of the instrument developed to test the causal model. The quantitative measures done only at these six firms are not statistically significant but the samples were used as a part of the triangulation method to collect data from multiple sources, to verify the respondents' understanding of the scales and as an initial measure to see if my understanding from the qualitative studies were accurately reflected by the instrument. This instrument will be pilot tested first and administered to a large sample of firms. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.