Performance and Management Independence in the ERP Implementations in Spain: A Dynamic View

Abstract

The present article aims to assess, from a dynamic viewpoint, the influence on the decision to implement an ERP system in Spanish companies of two key characteristics of adopters: prior performance and managers' independence. The main results indicate that the importance of those factors greatly depended on the moment of the implementation. Moreover, the article gives support to the necessity of a proper consideration of national culture when studying the process of diffusion of innovations.

Keywords:

• enterprise systems
• investments in IT
• IT diffusion and adoption

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Grant EC02008-00242.

We gratefully acknowledge the helpful suggestions from one Senior Editor and three anonymous referees. Any remaining shortcomings are the responsibility of the authors.

Notes

1. It must be taken into account that the main providers of ERP systems are non-Spanish companies. As Krumbholz, Galliers, Coulianos, & Maiden (2000) note, in the implementation process of an ERP solution there is a collision between the culture of the system provider, which is implicitly included in the software, and the corporate culture of the client. Therefore, it is not surprising that Waarts and Van Everdingen (2005) conclude that cultural factors have a significant impact on the outcomes of the implementation of an ERP.

2. However, an important problem is that organizations do not really know if ERP implementations in other companies were successful, as this information is not publicly available. This is especially true in countries like Spain, where reporting requirements of information are lower than in other countries.

3. Due to the aforementioned influence of cultural issues, the study covers only the ERP implementation effects on Spanish firms. So, we excluded companies owned by a foreign company.

4. In Bureau Van Dijk database companies where managers are dependent on the owners are those where there is a shareholder that directly owns more than 50% of the capital. On the other hand, it is presumed that managers are independent from the ownership if none of the shareholders meets this requirement. For further details see BVDEP (2007).