چه عواملی به موفقیت EPR پس از پیاده سازی منجر می شوند؟ مطالعه ای تجربی بر روی صنعت خرده فروشی چین

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been implemented globally and their implementation has been extensively studied during the past decade. However, many organizations are still struggling to derive benefits from the implemented ERP systems. Therefore, ensuring post-implementation success has become the focus of the current ERP research. This study develops an integrative model to explain the post-implementation success of ERP, based on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) theory. We posit that ERP implementation quality (the technological aspect) consisting of project management and system configuration, organizational readiness (the organizational aspect) consisting of leadership involvement and organizational fit, and external support (the environmental aspect) will positively affect the post-implementation success of ERP. An empirical test was conducted in the Chinese retail industry. The results show that both ERP implementation quality and organizational readiness significantly affect post-implementation success, whereas external support does not. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been increasingly adopted by organizations across various industries in both developed and developing countries. A recent survey has estimated the global market for the ERP to be US$ 47.7 billion in 2011 (Jacobson, Shepherd, D’Aquila, & Carter, 2007). Nevertheless, numerous studies and reports have demonstrated that expected benefits cannot be easily derived from ERP systems at the post-implementation stage (Yu, 2005). The effective deployment of ERP systems to generate benefits has puzzled many organizations. However, few studies have systematically studied this issue. Therefore, the primary research problem to be addressed in this study is the post-implementation success of the ERP. ERP systems, defined as “configurable information systems packages that integrate information and information-based processes within- and cross-functional areas in an organization” (Kumar & Hillegersberg, 2000, p.22), have acquired wide acceptance among numerous organizations across various industries (Huang & Palvia, 2001). Since an ERP system can support nearly all business functions and simultaneously provide a unified link between the components of an entire business (Ke & Wei, 2006), it has been believed to produce great benefits for adopting organizations. These benefits include reduction of unit labor costs and inventory levels, enhancement of customer services and operations efficiency, and improvement of an organization's capability for panoptic control (Kayas et al., 2008 and Sia et al., 2002). Although ERP systems were originally developed in the manufacturing sector, their aforementioned benefits have attracted other industries to adopt them as well. Retailing is such an industry. Retailers focus on maintaining customer's satisfaction and have to manage a growing variety of products. Accordingly they need a powerful information technology (IT) system such as ERP to help them in the competitive environment.

In this study, we proposed a research model to explain the post-implementation success of ERP by drawing on the TOE theory. Post-implementation success determines the ultimate success of the ERP initiative, and mainly comes from benefits that organizations can derive from the ERP deployment. Based on empirical data collected in the Chinese retail industry, we found that both the organizational factors and technological factors lead to great benefits. This research extends the current studies on ERP from the implementation stage to the post-implementation stage, and the findings of this study will help practitioners better carry out ERP deployment to maximize the benefits generated from an ERP initiative.