The influence of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems' performance on earnings management

We analyse whether there is a linkage between performance measures of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and earnings management. We find that earnings management decreases with the higher performance of ERP systems. The empirical result is as expected. We further analyse how the dimension of the DeLone and McLean model of information systems success affects earnings management. We find that the relationship between the performance of ERP systems and earnings management depends on System Quality after ERP implementation. The more System Quality improves, the more earnings management is reduced.     

Business process re-engineering in the logistics industry: a study of implementation,success factors,and performance

As business process re-engineering (BPR) is an important foundation to ensure the success of enterprise systems, this study would like to investigate the relationships among BPR implementation, BPR success factors, and business performance for logistics companies. Our empirical findings show that BPR companies outperformed non-BPR companies, not only on information processing, technology applications, organisational structure, and co-ordination, but also on all of the major logistics operations. Comparing the different perceptions of the success factors for BPR, non-BPR companies place greater emphasis on the importance of employee involvement while BPR companies are more concerned about the influence of risk management. Our findings also suggest that management attitude towards BPR success factors could affect performance with regard to technology applications and logistics operations. Logistics companies which have not yet implemented the BPR approach could refer to our findings to evaluate the advantages of such an undertaking and to take care of those BPR success factors affecting performance before conducting BPR projects.     

Estimating the impact of enterprise resource planning project management decisions on post-implementation maintenance costs: a case study using simulation modelling

Organisations often make implementation decisions with little consideration for the maintenance phase of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, resulting in significant recurring maintenance costs. Poor cost estimations are likely related to the lack of an appropriate framework for enterprise-wide pre-packaged software maintenance, which requires an ongoing relationship with the software vendor (Markus, M.L., Tanis, C., and Fenema, P.C., 2000 Markus, M. L., Tanis, C. and Fenema, P. C. 2000. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43(4): 42–46. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43 (4), 42–46). The end result is that critical project decisions are made with little empirical data, resulting in substantial long-term cost impacts. The product of this research is a formal dynamic simulation model that enables theory testing, scenario exploration and policy analysis. The simulation model ERPMAINT1 was developed by combining and extending existing frameworks in several research domains, and by incorporating quantitative and qualitative case study data. The ERPMAINT1 model evaluates tradeoffs between different ERP project management decisions and their impact on post-implementation total cost of ownership (TCO). Through model simulations a variety of dynamic insights were revealed that could assist ERP project managers. Major findings from the simulation show that upfront investments in mentoring and system exposure translate to long-term cost savings. The findings also indicate that in addition to customisations, add-ons have a significant impact on TCO.     

ERP systems success: an empirical analysis of how two organizational stakeholder groups prioritize and evaluate relevant measures

Organizations worldwide are adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. A number of studies discuss the implementation and success of such systems, but our study of the literature indicates that discussions about ERP systems success from the perspectives of key organizational stakeholders are not easy to come across. This study is designed to fill this gap in research. Using surveys in Finland and Estonia, we obtained empirical data from 66 respondents in 44 diverse, private, industrial organizations. Our objective was to determine whether differences exist between two organizational stakeholder groups, i.e. business managers and IT professionals, concerning how each group believe ERP success measures and dimensions are prioritized and evaluated in their respective organizations. Prior literature suggests that differences exist between the two groups with regard to how each perceives organizational information technology (IT) issues. Our study indicates that no significant statistical differences exist between the two groups with the exception of one dimension of ERP success, i.e. vendor/consultant quality. The implications of our findings for both practice and research are discussed.