Combining a Structuration Approach with a Behavioral-Based Model to Investigate ERP Usage

Enterprise resources planning systems (ERP), commercial software packages also known as integrated enterprise computing systems, can be viewed as currently one of the most challenging issues surrounding practitioners and researchers in the IS field. The ERP implementation is characterized by a long-term and complex process with high degree of interdependencies and a mandatory context for its users. Its consequences depend largely on the intensity and nature of its actual usage. This process can be analyzed under a structuration perspective, where the ongoing interaction between ERP and its users shape organizational changes and consequences over time. A synergy was sought combining in a single study the contribution of two distinct streams of thinking: the struturaction theory and the behavioral-based theories. The main objective of this paper is to provide a tool to investigate relevant factors affecting the ERP actual usage in organizations