تاثیر نیروهای گریز از مرکز و مایل به مرکز بر موفقیت پروژه ERP در شرکت های کوچک و متوسط ​​چین و تایوان

Successful implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems has become a critical facilitator for efficient operations management in both developed and developing economies. The study presented in this paper uses a novel “Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces” (CCF) model developed in the context of global new product development projects, to examine the way that the interaction of factors relevant to project management contributes to successful ERP implementation processes. Based on regression analysis of responses from 244 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Taiwan and China collected in May 2006, we find that the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces fosters ERP project success, a result which has significant impacts on ERP project management practice. The study also opens up a new direction for future research on ERP implementation processes in that it suggests a novel way to model the interaction of project management factors. In addition, the new measures regarding project success and project management developed and validated in this study should prove to be useful for researchers studying ERP implementation processes.

Mainland China has successfully encouraged foreign investment with an open-door policy. This has resulted in larger and more complex networks of R&D, manufacturing and service operations, and supply chains, all of which address the increasing desire for investment in China (Martinsons, 2000). At the firm level, these developments have increased the requirements for a sophisticated IT infrastructure. Today, China is the third largest market for information technology (IT), after the United States and Japan. Within the Asia-Pacific region, China's IT-services revenue is expected to top $43.9 billion in 2008, as China surpasses South Korea to become one of the three largest IT-services markets in the region along with Japan and Australia (Quan et al., 2005). These developments have placed tremendous pressure on firms in China to improve their operational performance based on new IT-systems. One class of such systems is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that seeks to synchronize the planning of processes across all functions within an organization. Many organizations in China have invested billions of dollars in ERP systems (Martinsons, 2004). However, previous studies on ERP implementations focused mainly on large companies in Europe or the United States, and very few focused on enterprises in developing nations such as China and Taiwan (He, 2004; Tsai et al., 2005; Reimers, 2003). As developing countries may face different challenges from those faced by developed countries, there is a gap in the ERP literature that needs more research attention. The present study aims to narrow the above gap in the ERP literature by presenting results of an empirical study of ERP implementation in China and Taiwan. The context of these two regions offers the potential for new insights for several reasons. First, the results should complement findings from developed economies in North America and Europe. Second, as firms in China and Taiwan are usually much smaller than those in Europe and North America, the present study identifies the characteristics of ERP implementation projects in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Third, the comparison between China and Taiwan offers an interesting contrast since while both economies share the same culture (Hofstede, 2001) they differ in their stage of economic development.

This study has used responses from 244 small and medium-sized manufacturers in China and Taiwan to examine the role that pairs of centripetal and centrifugal forces plays in ERP implementation success. The forces that were investigated in this study do not in themselves influence ERP project success but do so in certain combinations. Despite its limitations, we believe this study opens a fruitful avenue for future research on ERP project management. It is hoped that the new measures developed and validated in this study will prove to be useful to researchers in their future endeavors.