Factors Constraining the Exploitation of Enterprise Systems: a Research Program

An ERP implementation is a significant intervention in organisational life. As such, it affects and is affected by many variables including the organisation\u27s culture, decision-making strategies, risk taking orientation, leadership strategies and perceptions of the value of Information Technology. ERP implementations are fundamentally agents for organisational change, and such change requires effective leadership practices, beyond the focus of personal qualities and technical skills. ERP benefit lies in achieving business performance improvement and this requires effort for process redesign. Any such process change involves risk and the organisation\u27s orientation to risk in terms of adoption or failure avoidance may be a critical variable in an ERP success and exploitation. In addition, the adoption of a large alien system replacing homegrown systems is a significant change to the enshrined organisational practices and sense of ownership. This paper reviews constructs associated with cultural change and systems implementation. It proposes a research program that seeks to develop appropriate models that assist organisations in exploiting their Enterprise Systems Investments