A framework of ERP systems implementation success in China: An empirical study

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one of the most widely accepted choices to obtain competitive advantage for manufacturing companies. However, the successful implementation rate is low and many firms did not achieve intended goals in China. This study develops an ERP implementation success framework by adapting the Ives et al. information systems (ISs) research model and DeLone and McLean's IS success model to identify both critical success factors and success measures. Qualitative case study research methodology is used to collect data and Atlas/ti program is used to facilitate data analysis. Discussion is made finally and suggested ERP systems implementation methodology is given at the end.     

The mediating role of organizational complexity between enterprise resource planning and business model innovation

Almost any firm faces a change during its life that requires a redefinition of the business model to be more innovative, namely business model innovation (BMI) that designs an architecture to create, capture and deliver value to customers in the marketplace and society. These changes are a great opportunity to improve revenue and costs, but the associated organizational complexity also has drawbacks, due to the set of interrelationships and linkages within the firm. This situation could be even more relevant for firms that implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), due to the complexity of the software and also the difficult implementation process in the organization. In order to fill this gap, this study analyses 104 firms that have implemented ERP and deal simultaneously with BMI. The research objective is therefore to test the role of organizational complexity between ERP and BMI. Specifically, the aim is to test the mediating role of organizational complexity between ERP and BMI. Our findings reveal that organizational complexity mediates between ERP and BMI. Important implications for researchers and managers are provided to optimize ERP implementation so as to obtain a higher return on the costs and revenue associated with BMI.     

Understanding ERP system implementation in a hospital by analysing stakeholders

Implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems requires significant organisational, as well as technical, changes. These will affect stakeholders with varying perspectives and interests in the system. This is particularly the case in health care, as a feature of this sector is that responsibility of services is shared between many autonomous units. In these and similar settings, it is essential to analyse stakeholders and to understand their expectations and attitudes towards the system. Such an understanding will help implementers to address stakeholder interests and to encourage acceptance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretically based model to analyse how stakeholder attitudes and behaviours in a hospital setting affect the outcome of ERP implementation. This model is applied in an empirical study of a project to introduce an ERP system in medium‐sized hospital in The Netherlands. The study shows how the ERP implementation impacts the interests of stakeholders such as physicians and administrators, which caused tensions. The paper examines the reasons of these tensions. In doing so, it contributes to our understanding of ERP implementation in health care and any other similar sectors from a stakeholder perspective, and it may help implementers to manage this more effectively.     

Knowing the price of everything? Exploring the impact of increased procurement professional involvement on management consultancy purchasing

Much of the estimated $554 billion annual expenditure on management consultancy services is accounted for by projects with a direct link to client profitability. As such, it is critical for clients (and arguably the wider economy) that the purchase process for such services is managed effectively. For many within the management consultancy literature, this requires close, bilateral buy-side service end-user/supplier engagement. In recent years, however, this bilateral engagement has been modified by a significant increase in procurement professional involvement. This has caused concern within the management consultancy literature as it is believed it will inevitably lead to a cost-focused approach that disrupts close end-user/supplier engagement and causes sub-standard service outcomes. In this paper, we explore, via qualitative research, whether this concern is justified. In the event, the analysis suggested partial justification. However, examples of positive procurement involvement were also reported, suggesting that existing models and assumptions within the management consultancy literature regarding the impact of increased procurement involvement require modification.     

Design of a Global Decision Support System for a manufacturing SME: Towards participating in Collaborative Manufacturing

This paper discusses the conceptual design of a Global Decision Support System for a manufacturing Small or Medium Enterprise (SM/E), which actively participates in Collaborative Manufacturing. In order to implement the proposed concept, a Web Services based system architecture is proposed to offer maximum interoperability between all the distributed participants of a Collaborative Manufacturing Network (CMN) and their management information systems. Furthermore, this conceptual design utilises a Collaborative decision-support model that effectively interacts with the decision-makers and the management information systems/tools exist in the network, and provides appropriate support to all necessary decision-making steps towards the attainment of the network's strategic goals, while making full benefits of the network resources.     

ERP system usage: the role of control and empowerment

Organisations have made significant investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with the strategic expectation that employees will utilise this technology to enhance organisational performance. However, research indicates that ERP systems are underutilised. In order to disentangle the challenge of underutilisation, this paper addresses the impact of organisational control and empowerment on infusion—the deep and comprehensive usage of an information system. Moreover, it also tests whether infusion will lead to higher levels of ERP system success. Data from a sample of 260 matched pairs of ERP system users and their supervisors were collected and analysed. Results indicate that empowerment is positively related with infusion, whereas an inverted u‐relationship has been found for organisational control. The critical link between infusion and ERP system success was found as well, meaning that the more users utilise the system to its fullest extent, the more likely the organisation is to attain ERP systems' promised benefits.     

Dynamic pricing models for ERP systems under network externality

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems vendors face great challenges to enhance their market position and maximize their profits. Being able to simultaneously predict the diffusion of an ERP and to determine the right price to charge to a customer is a complex task. Earlier work has demonstrated evidence of network effect in the diffusion of ERP software in industries. In light of this evidence, we investigate in this paper the benefit of a dynamic pricing strategy for ERP systems vendors in a business network governed by a quantitative diffusion model. Based on a real scenario in the automotive industry, those quantitative models are integrated into a simulation-based optimization approach to tackle the problem. Our findings are promising and establish the foundation of a powerful decision support tool for ERP systems vendors.     

Unsupervised KDD to creatively support managers' decision making with fuzzy association rules: A distribution channel application

To be competitive in contemporary turbulent environments, firms must be capable of processing huge amounts of information, and effectively convert it into actionable knowledge. This is particularly the case in the marketing context, where problems are also usually highly complex, unstructured and ill-defined. In recent years, the development of marketing management support systems has paralleled this evolution in informational problems faced by managers, leading to a growth in the study (and use) of artificial intelligence and soft computing methodologies. Here, we present and implement a novel intelligent system that incorporates fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms to operate in an unsupervised manner. This approach allows the discovery of interesting association rules, which can be linguistically interpreted, in large scale databases (KDD or Knowledge Discovery in Databases.) We then demonstrate its application to a distribution channel problem. It is shown how the proposed system is able to return a number of novel and potentially-interesting associations among variables. Thus, it is argued that our method has significant potential to improve the analysis of marketing and business databases in practice, especially in non-programmed decisional scenarios, as well as to assist scholarly researchers in their exploratory analysis.     

Positioning industrial design students to operate at the ‘fuzzy front end’: investigating a new arena of university design education

This paper describes pedagogic research to instigate, support and understand a significant change in the education of undergraduate industrial design students. Design educators at Loughborough University, UK, have proposed that it will be critical for future industrial designers to learn new knowledge and abilities which will enable them to successfully operate at the ‘fuzzy front end’ of new product development. This is an arena before a traditional design brief exists (i.e. ‘pre-brief’), and typically involves in-depth investigation of such issues as users, experiences and brand, followed by exploitation of the findings. Curriculum development and new teaching, evolved over five annual cycles of implementation, reflection, planning and new implementation, is described. A model of the activities and processes of this ‘pre-brief’ arena is presented. Through structured investigation of the cycles of improvement and follow-up evaluation research, evidence gathered from stakeholders (students, educators, and industry) indicates that industrial design students can be taught to successfully operate at this fuzzy front end, and that this can be a highly effective strategy for students in their design project work. It also suggests that the students’ enhanced abilities will be in demand following their graduation.     

试论ERP环境下的内部控制

ERP的实施对内部控制产生了深远的影响,一方面它为内部控制的实施创造了有利条件,另一方面,它又给内部控制的实施带来了新的风险。本文在分析ERP环境下内部控制特点的基础上,以风险控制为导向,提出了ERP环境下完善内部控制的对策。     

Differential effects of ERP systems on user outcomes—a longitudinal investigation

Adopting a model of job enrichment we report on a longitudinal case investigating the perceived impact of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system on user job design characteristics. Our results indicated that in the context of an ERP geared towards centralisation and standardisation the extent to which users perceived an increase or decrease in job enrichment was associated with aspects such as formal authority and the nature of their work role. Experienced operational employees proficient in the original legacy system perceived ERP system protocols to constrain their actions, limit training and increase dependence on others in the workflow. Conversely, managerial users reported a number of benefits relating to report availability, improved organisational transparency and increased overall job enrichment. These results supported our argument concerning the relationship between ERPs with a standardisation intent and positive job enrichment outcomes for managerial users and negative job‐related outcomes for operational users.     

Technical information,technical assistance,and technology transfer—the need for a synthesis*

In the literature and often in practice, technical assistance, technical information, and technology transfer are treated as three separate activities. This paper discusses the relationship between them. Illustrations are given of the inability of overspecialized systems to effectively serve a broad range of needs. Some suggestions are made for research that is needed in this area. to help improve the design of systems and institutions and the training of people to carry out these functions. Some experimental ideas are presented which can help to resolve some of the policy and design problems in this area.     

Sales trainer roles, competencies, skills, and behaviors: A case study

Numerous studies have examined different issues related to evaluating the effectiveness of sales training programs. Limited needs assessment, lack of training objectives, no alignment between training objectives and corporate goals, and sales training content, are all potential factors that can influence the effectiveness of training programs. Yet, little attention has been paid to the role of a central actor in the training process — the sales trainer. The evaluation of sales training programs is incomplete without taking into consideration the qualifications of the trainer. Through a case study, this paper suggests there are 8 roles that are associated with the sales trainer position. To effectively execute these roles, this exploratory investigation identified 18 related skills that are grouped into 5 competencies. Recommendations are offered regarding the relevance of this research for practitioners and suggestions are provided for future research in this area.     

A framework for measuring logistics performance in the wine industry

Nowadays, in order for wine companies to reach a world-class standard, it is necessary to implement the industry best practices and continuously adapt their logistics processes. Through benchmarking, these enterprises can find opportunities for improvement. So far, little research in benchmarking and performance measurement has been developed for the wine industry. In this paper a logistics benchmarking framework for the wine industry is proposed. A benchmarking study considering several wineries from Mendoza (Argentina) is presented as a case study, in order to demonstrate the validity of the developed framework.     

A qualitative study of inter-organizational knowledge management in complex products and systems development

Much research has recognized that cross-disciplinary knowledge inputs are necessary to successful product innovation, particularly in complex products and systems (CoPS) development. This paper focuses on developing an exploratory framework for studying how an inter-organizational knowledge management (KM) approach affects the development of CoPS, and exploring how inter-organizational collaboration affects KM within a CoPS context. Based on a review of the literature and in-depth case studies, this paper puts forward some propositions and develops an integrated conceptual model showing the link between the dimensions of inter-organizational KM and the performance of CoPS development. Finally, the implications of the proposed model for inter-organizational KM in a CoPS environment are discussed.     

ERPs as 'technologies-in-practice': social construction, materiality and the role of organisational factors

Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) often fail to deliver the organisational benefits anticipated. This paper uses Orlikowski's 'technology-in-practice' framework to analyse the impact of an ERP on branch managers in a large bank. While this framework provides important insights into the impact of ERPs, the case also highlights the significance of organisational factors in shaping how users enact technology at work.     

On the Intricacies of the Chinese Guanxi: A Process Model of Guanxi Development

Guanxi (personal connection) has been identified as a necessary condition to do business successfully in China. In this paper, we seek a clear conceptual understanding of this prevalent construct and propose a three-stage model of guanxi development so as to stimulate systematic research in this area. Our conceptual and theoretical discussion of guanxi bases,guanxi objectives, and the operating principles at different stages of guanxi development will also help practitioners to use guanxi more effectively.     

Knowledge work: its evaluation and reward

Abstract . Much conflict arises in Indian research institutions as a consequence of unsatisfactory systems of evaluating and rewarding individual performance. The paper reviews existing systems critically and lays down guidelines for the development of an open consensus system designed to remove objections to current predominantly closed and secret practices. The basis for an evaluation proforma suitable for Indian conditions is put forward; this would include information on current achievement, future potential and personal characteristics with respect to each of the functions (research, teaching, consultancy, etc.) that a knowledge worker might perform. An example of how the various elements could be weighted and combined is also provided. The paper contains advice on the administration of the system to ensure the eventual emergence of a consensus. It concludes with a discussion of the factors to take into account and the problems likely to be met in translating the evaluation results into monetary and non-monetary rewards, based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.     

The consultants' offensive: reengineering – from fad to technique

Business process reengineering has tended to be seen as a management fashion and the brainchild of the gurus who popularised it. Yet this overlooks the role of consultants in the spread of BPR and the system itself as a specific technique of change management. In fact BPR played a significant role in the push for new business in management consultancy and has become integral to an armoury of consultant tools. This article explores reengineering as a consultancy solution in the context of the external expert's distinctive claims on knowledge, and argues that this approach reveals new insights into both reengineering and the consultancy process.