UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
A literature review on ERP adoption, acquisition and
implementation in SMEs
Weifeng Sun
Student number—2262436
June 22, 2014
Table of Contents
Abstract ...2
1. Introduction ...3
2. Theoretical background...7
3. Methodology ...12
3.1 Phase 1: search for and selection of the relevant articles ...13
3.2 Phase 2: analysis...14
4. Findings...16
4.1 Publications and journals...16
Abstract
With the saturation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the large enterprises (LEs) market, more and more ERP vendors focus on small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Besides, given the fierce global competition, heavy information flow and complex supply chain networks, SMEs are becoming more willing to adopt ERP systems. In this background, this paper aims to conduct a literature review on the three most important phases (selection, acquisition and implementation) of ERP life-cycle in SMEs. This paper summarizes the factors influencing ERP adoption, selection and implementation in SMEs. Beside, this paper also investigates how the organization size affects ERP selection, acquisition and implementation. Moreover, this paper presents an analysis of the evolution of the current literature related to ERP systems in SMEs and the existing research findings to help the managers, clients or consultants to achieve better performance when they are embarking on the ERP projects in SMEs.
1. Introduction
Enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems are commercial software that integrates a variety of business functions by using single information architecture to achieve an overview of the business (Klaus, 2000). During the past decade, ERP systems have received attention from both academics and practice (Shehab et al., 2004), especially that ERP systems are becoming more and more widespread in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and are being considered as one of the most important ways to obtain competitive advantages and to re-engineer business processes (Gable and Stewart, 1999). Therefore, it is important to consider how the ERP field in SMEs has evolved and what the status quo is (Chen and Hirschheim, 2004). Currently, several ERP literature reviews have been conducted (Shehab et al., 2004; Botta-Genoulaz et al., 2005; Esteves and Pastor, 2001; Moon, 2007; Cumbie et al., 2005; Esteves and Bohorquez, 2007; Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010). These reviews present an overview of the extant ERP system literature from a general point of view. As research on ERP systems is a broad topic, constitutes several different research domains (Møller, 2005), and there is an increasing attention to the research on ERP systems in SMEs among scholars, practitioners and suppliers (Gable and Stewart, 1999), we focused our literature review on ERP systems in SMEs to present more detailed research findings and deeper understanding of this particular field rather than what is already available.
losses of the companies (e.g. Donovan, 2000; Rao, 2000). As a result, it is very important and interesting to investigate the first three phases. Currently, no literature review has covered these three phases, therefore, this paper will focus on the three life-cycle phases of ERP systems by providing a detailed analysis of this research domain and guiding future research in this field.
In the existing literature, most research related to EPR systems is based on the findings from large organizations (Loh and Koh, 2004; Botta-Genoulaz et al., 2005; Esteves and Pastor, 2001; Moon, 2007; Cumbie et al, 2005). Given the fact that SMEs are fundamentally different from large enterprises (Welsh and White, 1981; Ghobadian and Gallear, 1996), the findings from the research on large enterprises (LEs) are not easily extended to SMEs due to the special characteristics of SMEs, such as organizational size and business complexity (Blili and Raymond, 1993). One distinct characteristic between SMEs and LEs is the organization size. So it is very interesting to know the relationship between organization size and ERP adoption, acquisition and implementation. Thus, we have made assumptions when formulating research questions to facilitate the identified purpose of the study. The research questions and assumptions are presented as followed:
Research question 1: What factors influence the adoption of ERP systems in
SMEs?
Assumption 1: We assume the factors, which can influence the willingness of SMEs to adopt ERP systems, are different from those for LEs.
Research question 2: What factors influence the acquisition of ERP systems in
SMEs?
Assumption 2: We assume that the factors affecting ERP selection for SMEs are different from those for LEs.
Research question 3: What factors influence the implementation of ERP
systems in SMEs?
Assumption 3: We assume that the CSFs in SMEs are different from those in Les. Research question 4: What is the relationship of organization size to the ERP
Regarding the theoretical contribution, this paper aims to conduct a literature review on this particular field by providing a detailed analysis of this domain, presenting the current status of research in this field and guiding future research. Beside, this paper will summarize the factors influencing ERP adoption, acquisition and implementation in SMEs. Moreover, this paper will investigate the relationship between organization size and the ERP adoption, acquisition and implementation in SMEs. Considering the practical contributions, the summarized factors affecting ERP adoption and ERP selection criteria can assist SMEs managers when they need to make the decision of ERP adoption and selection. Also summarized CSFs of ERP implementation in SMEs can help managers or clients to improve the success rate of ERP implementation. In another word, we will present research findings and other suggestions to improve our knowledge of ERP systems in SMEs.
2. Theoretical background
This section will present the definition of ERP systems and previous research background in accordance with the sequence of the ERP life-cycle phases developed by Esteves and Pastor (1999). This paper focuses on the first three phases, which are ERP adoption, ERP acquisition and ERP implementation.
Considering the SMEs, there is not a consistent definition throughout the literature. However, researchers have defined SMEs based on two factors: (1) the number of employees (Kimberly, 1976; Yasai-Ardekani, 1989; Swamidass and Kotha, 1998); (2) annual revenues (Ein-Dor and Segev, 1978; Raymond, 1990; Choe, 1996). According to Schmitz and Biermann (2007), small companies are defined as those with less than 50 employees and the mid-sized companies are defined as those with 50-250 employees.
Many papers have defined the ERP systems in literature. Enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems is an integrated software package including a set of standard functional modules (Human Resources, Sales, Operations, Finance, etc.), integrated by different vendors, which can then be applied to specific requirements of different customers (Botta-Genoulaz and Millet, 2006). More simply, ERP systems are designed to solve the problems of information fragmentation within an enterprise (Muscatello et al., 2003).
benefits of adopting the system are also increasing.
According to Esteves and Pastor (1999), ERP systems have six life-cycle phases yet this paper focuses on the first three phases. These three phases are more practical and important for SMEs when embarking on ERP projects. The first phase is ERP system adoption, but before making the decision whether to apply ERP systems, SMEs have to seriously consider their motivations to use ERP system. In order to survive in the highly competitive environment with LEs, many SMEs adopt information technology (IT) as it can assist SMEs to improve their competitive capabilities and exploit more opportunities (Thong, 1999). Even so, applying an ERP system is costly and time-consuming, especially for the SMEs, which lack human and financial resources (McAdam, 2002; Achanga et al., 2006). So when making the decision of ERP adoptions, SMEs have to consider their financial situation. Besides, SMEs are different from the LEs in how they influence their information-seeking process (Lang and Calantone, 1997; Buonanno et al., 2005,). The differences are presented as followed: (1) SMEs lack information system management substantially (Kagan et al., 1990); (2) SMEs focus on the responsibility of information-gathering into one or two individuals, rather than emphasize on the scanning activities among top management (Hambrick, 1981); (3)SMEs have limited IT resources for information-gathering (Pearce et al., 1982); (4) SMEs have a lower degree of quality and quantity of information system environment (Pearce et al., 1982); (5) SMEs have fewer information system skills (Premkumar, 2003).Therefore, the Information Systems (IS) that could be adopted by SMEs probably cannot fit the business process in Les (Ramdani et al., 2009). Moreover, SMEs have a broad range of suppliers (Bingi et al., 1999), thus many available alternatives will make SMEs more complicated to adopt an ERP system (Poba-Nzaou et al., 2008). Considering the differences between SMEs and LEs, we assumed that the factors influencing ERP adoption in SMEs are different from those in LEs. And this has been proven by Laukkanen et al (2007); they found significant differences exist between LEs and SMEs concerning the purposes and constraints of ERP adoption.
fundamental factors facilitating the SMEs to adopt ERP systems, and also help SMEs to consider whether they need to adopt ERP systems or not before they make this big decision. As there are many benefits that can be achieved by finding out the factors affecting ERP adoption in SMEs, many scholars have investigated this field.
According to Jang et al. (2009), a number of identified variables which describe the business strategies of enterprises internally and externally are the primary factors to determine the adoption of ERP systems in SMEs. Also, the organization size plays an important role in the decision of ERP adoption (Jang et al., 2009). Small enterprises are less outward-oriented in ERP adoption than large and medium-sized enterprises (Laukkanen et al., 2007).
The second phase is ERP system acquisition. Currently, a number of ERP vendors exist in the market, such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Sage et al. The distinctions of characteristics between SMEs and LEs lead to different ERP systems acquisition for both SMEs and LEs (Bernroider and Koch, 2001). The previous literatures have identified some selection criteria of ERP systems in SMEs (Rao, 2000; Deep et al., 2008; Van Everdingen et al., 2000). According to Van Everdingen et al. (2000), the fit with current business processes is a critical selection criterion for ERP systems in Nordic European SMEs; flexibility, cost, user-friendliness, scalability can be other selection criteria. In addition, the degree of technology awareness of CEO, the IT competence of employees and the enterprise sizes are also important factors for SMEs to select the appropriate ERP systems (Winkelmann and Klose, 2008; Hung et al., 2004).
Al-Mashari (2000) stated that around 70% of ERP systems failed in achieving the expected benefits. Considering the high failure rate in implementing ERP systems, it is very important to investigate the factors influencing the implementation of ERP systems.
In order to reduce the high failure rates of ERP implementation, a number of researches had been done in this area. Literature has identified several critical success factors (CSF) of ERP implementation (e.g. Olhager and Selldin, 2003; Parr and Shanks, 2000; Al-Mashari et al., 2003; Bradley, 2008; Bingi et al., 1999; Arnold, 2006; Mabert et al., 2000). Critical Success Factor (CSF) was introduced by Rockart (1979) as an approach to assist managers, to determine which information is the most relevant to help successfully achieve their objectives. Although many researchers have paid significant attention to CSFs of ERP implementation, most literatures focus on the ERP implementation in LEs. Due to the significant differences between LEs and SMEs, some researchers (Ahmad and Pinedo, 2013; Snider et al., 2009; Upadhyay et al., 2011; Deep et al., 2008) focus on the CSFs of ERP implementation in SMEs. In the article about CSFs of ERP implementation in Belgian SMEs, Doom et al. (2010) stated that the most essential critical succes factors mentioned by studies, show that ERP implementation in bigger enterprises also occur in SMEs. However, there are are not many critical success factors of ERP implementations found in LEs that are absent in the SMEs (Doom et al., 2010). Likewise, some important CSFs for SMEs are absent from CSFs list for LEs. Therefore, the assumption we made is partly true. More specific, literature has considered the SME characteristics, SME culture and impact of consultant et al as CSFs of ERP implementation in SMEs (Doom et al., 2010; Xia et al., 2009; Liang and Xue, 2004; Adam and O’doherty, 2000; Koh et al., 2009).
companies. Thus the organizational structure of LEs may lead to the differences in the daily operations from small companies. As a result, we assume that organization size can influence ERP adoption, acquisition and implementation by affecting the organizational structures of the companies. Also, ERP project is costly, and there is another distinct feature between SMEs and LEs is normally LEs have more financial resources than SMEs (McAdam, 2002; Achanga et al., 2006), so we assume that cost is an important factor influencing ERP adoption, acquisition and implementation. As different companies may have different way to operate, so we assume that different sized companies may have different ways to select and implement ERP system. Thus, we assume that organization size can influence ERP acquisition and implementation by using different approaches. To answer research question: What is the relationship
of organization size to the ERP adoption, acquisition and implementation in SMEs?
We formulate a research framework as Figure 1.
Figure 1. Research framework
3. Methodology
In order to achieve an overview of the research domain and answer the research
+/-questions, there is a need to apply a structured research methodology (Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010). This paper is done according to the methodology used by Schlichter and Kraemmergaard (2010). There are two phases in this methodology framework (Cumbie et al., 2005) (see Figure 2).
In the first phase, we searched for and selected the relevant articles used in the paper. In the second phase, we classified and analyzed these papers. The reason why we used the ERP life-cycle framework proposed by Esteves and Pastor (1999) is that it can help us to organize the review arrangement and classify the articles in a simple way (Haddara and Zach, 2011). Besides, this framework has been used by other scholars when conducting a literature review on ERP research (Esteves and Pastor, 2001; Esteves and Bohorquez, 2007; Haddara and Zach, 2011).
Figure2. Methodological framework for comprehensive literature studies (adapted from Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010)
3.1 Phase 1: search for and selection of the relevant articles
In the first phase, for the correct selection of the articles, we had set some criteria to apply as followed: (1) the articles should mainly be published between the years
Phase1. Search for and select the relevant articles
Criteria for Journal publications
Specific search procedures (See Figure 3)
1999-2014; (2) the articles are in English; (3) to ensure the quality of the articles, the articles should be published in peer reviewed journals; (4) the articles are related to ERP and SMEs; (5) the articles focus on the research about ERP adoption, ERP acquisition or ERP implementation; (6) the articles are freely available through the RUG library web-search facilities. Moreover, we also used the criteria used by Schlichter and Kraemmergaard (2010) to exclude irrelevant journal publications. The criteria are presented as followed: (1) Enterprise Resource Planning systems or ERP are only used as an example of a system among other systems in the articles; (2) Enterprise Resource Planning systems or ERP are only considered as a contextual variable in the articles; (3) The articles without editorial notes; (4) The article without abstract. Based on the search method used by (Haddara and Zach, 2011) (see Figure 3), the specific search procedures are presented as followed:
Firstly, we used Google Scholar as the initial search (Haddara and Zach, 2011). The key words we used were: ERP, SMEs, Enterprise Resource Planning, Small and Medium Enterprises, ERP adoption, ERP acquisition, ERP implementation and combinations of these key words (Haddara and Zach, 2011). The articles selected by Google Scholar were checked if they met the criteria we set.
(ISJ); (5) Journal of Information Technology (JIT); (6) Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS); (7) Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS); (8) European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS).
By using the top Information Systems Journals, we searched the relevant articles by using the key words we used in the previous procedure (Haddara and Zach, 2011). Since the ERP system is one of the information systems, the top Information Systems Journals can provide many high quality and relevant articles. Thirdly, after searching the relevant articles in the previous procedures, we needed to check the contents of the articles whether they fit the research fields for the review (Haddara and Zach, 2011). To check the content, we went through the abstracts, key words, introduction and conclusions of the articles carefully. By doing so, the irrelevant articles were abandoned and the relevant articles were selected more accurately (Haddara and Zach, 2011). Fourthly, after further screening of the articles, we already selected many relevant articles. Based on the relevant articles we found, we also went through the reference lists to check if any relevant articles we omitted (Haddara and Zach, 2011). By doing so, more useful articles were found to ensure that we have enough articles to conduct a literature review. Fifthly, we read the articles carefully to search for the content related to our research topic. Not only abstracts and conclusions, other parts need to be read as well to prepare for phase 2.
3.2 Phase 2: analysis
of each phase (Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010).
After the head count, we classified the papers according to the three life-cycle phases of ERP or different research topics. This was done by reading through the abstract, key words, introduction and conclusion (Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010). Then we made a content analysis in detail to answer the research questions we made and identified the content that have not been addressed in this domain to guide the future research (Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010).
Figure3. Articles selection procedures (adapted from Haddara and Zach, 2011)
1. Google Scholar and EBSCOhost
Key words: ERP; SMEs; Enterprise Resource Planning; small and medium enterprises; ERP adoption; ERP acquisition; ERP implementation and the combinations of these key words.
2. Search from top IS journals
E.g. EJIS, ISR, ISJ, JIT et al.
3. Check the articles by going through the abstracts, key words,
introductions and conclusions. 4. Search articles by going through the
relevant lists of selected articles.
4. Findings
In this section, the overview of the articles and the findings will be presented. Based on the analysis of all the articles, we can present a general overview of development of research on ERP in SMEs, thus providing the trend of research on ERP in SMEs for ERP researchers or ERP participants.
4.1 Publications and journals
The total number of articles we reviewed was 118. The general trend of the research on ERP in SMEs from 1999 to 2014 is increasing (see Figure 4). From 1999 to 2004, the number of ERP in SMEs journal publication per year was very small, ranging from 1 to 3. Compared to the findings (see Figure 5) from Schlichter and Kraemmergaard (2010), we can see, in the ERP research field, little attention was paid to the specific area of ERP in SMEs from the beginning of the 21st century. However,
as time went on, the number of journal publications about ERP in SMEs increased. Also, the percentage of ERP in SMEs improved significantly from 1999 to 2009. Based on the comparison between Figure 4 and Figure 5, we can come to a conclusion that in the first ten years in the 21st century, the awareness of the importance of
research on ERP in SMEs had improved remarkably. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the SMEs want to survive and become more competitive in the increasingly global environment (Poba-Nzaou, et al., 2008). From Figure 4, we can see that from 2006 to 2010, the number of papers published continued to rise. While in 2010, the highest number of papers published in a year was 19. After the constant passion on the research of ERP in SMEs, a small decrease appeared in 2011 and remained unchanged on 13 papers published per year from 2011 to 2013.
Management, Industrial Management & Data Systems, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management and Procedia Technology (see Table 1). The Journal of Enterprise Information Management, which had published the most papers (16) since 1999, published 6 papers in 2009, 1.25 papers on average from 2005 to 2008 and 1 paper on average from 2010 to 2014. However, each of the other four journals had published 3 papers from 1999 to 2014. 1 3 1 1 1 3 7 4 7 10 15 18 13 12 13 4 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Number of publications
Number of publications
Figure4.Number of ERP in SMEs journal publications per year
Figure5. Number of ERP journal publications per year (adopted from Schlichter and Kraemmergaard, 2010)
Journals
number of publications AIMS International Journal of Management ( AIMSIJM) 1
International Journal of Engineering and Technology (IJET) 1
Asian Journal of Management Research (AJMR) 1
Asia-Pacific Journal of Information Technology and Multimedia (APJITM) 1
Benchmarking: An International Journal 1
Business Process Management Journal (BPMJ) 2
Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS) 1
Communications of the IIMA (CIIMA) 1
Computers in Industry (CI) 1
Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) 1
European Journal of Scientific Research (EJSR) 1
European Journal of Social Sciences (EJSS) 1
European Management Journal (EMJ) 1
Industrial Management & Data Systems (IMDS) 3
Information Systems Journal (ISJ) 1
Information Systems Management (ISM) 2
International Journal of Accounting Information Systems (IJAIS) 2 International Journal of Business, Management and Social Sciences (IJBMSS) 1 International Journal of Information Management (IJIM) 1
International Journal of Information Science (IJIS) 1
International Journal of Production Research (IJPR) 2
International Journal of Project Management (IJPM) 2
International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology 1
International Refereed Research Journal (IRRJ) 1
Journal of Business and Management (JBM) 1
Journal of Computer Science (JCS) 1
Journal of Computers (JC) 1
Journal of Enterprise Information Management (JEIM) 16
Journal of Enterprise Resource Planning Studies (JERPS) 1
Journal of Information Technology (JIT) 1
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management (JMTM) 3 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers (JCIIE) 1 Journal of US - China Public Administration (JUSCPA) 1
Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research (MEJSR) 1
Procedia Technology (PT) 3
Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (RCIM) 1
SSRN Electronic Journal (SSRNEJ) 1
The International Journal of Management Education (IJME) 1
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS) 1
Total 43 71
Table1. Journals and the number of publications
1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 JEIM IMDS IJPE JMTM PT
Figure 6. Journals with 2 or more papers published
In Figure 6, we see that journals with 2 or more papers published clustered around 2004 to 2013. It shows the research interest in ERP in SMEs remained stable during this period except 2009, which shows that 6 papers had been published.
Table3. Topic classification
4.2 ERP adoption
The adoption decision phase is the period that the managers need to find out the necessity for a new ERP system when selecting the general enterprise system approach is able to cope with the crucial business challenges (Esteves and Pastor, 1999). During this phase, the organization needs to identify the system requirements, the goals and benefits of the system and to analyze the influence the ERP adoption at a business and organizational level (Esteves and Pastor, 1999).
systems and data; (3) the necessity of avoiding business risks becoming crucial. Furthermore, for medium-size non-profit organizations, the reasons to adopt ERP systems can be explained from efficiency, technical, economic and strategic perspectives (Oliver and Romm, 1999).
Normally, the information system adoption research assesses different technological, organizational and environmental factors which inhibit or facilitate IS adoption (Ramdani et al., 2009). The technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework proposed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) can be used as a research method to study the enterprise system (ES) adoption in SMEs (Ramdani and Kawalek, 2007). In the research of Ramdani et al. (2009), the authors used TOE framework to forecast which SME is more inclined to adopt ERP system. According to their results analyzed by Ramdani et al. (2009), they found that the technological factors (relative advantage of ES and trial ability) and organizational factors (organizational readiness; organizational size and top management support) are significant determinants of ES adoption for SMEs. However, a surprising finding is that environmental factors are insignificant to ES adoption, which is supported by the findings of a research by Lee (2004) suggesting that the SMEs make decision based on internal critical factors.
Concerning the organizational context, top management support is considered as the most significant factors in IS innovation adoption (Ramdani et al., 2009; Jeyaraj et
al., 2006). Because top management can facilitate the change within organization by
communicating and strengthening values by providing a defined vision for the company (Thong, 1999). In addition, top management support plays an important role in creating a supportive climate for new technologies adoption (e.g. Premkumar and Roberts, 1999). Normally, the chief decision maker is the top manager or owner of the company, they have the decisive powers in deciding whether to adopt new IS or not (Ramdani et al., 2009). This finding is also consistent with previous research (e.g. Premkumar and Roberts, 1999; Premkumar, 2003).
to make the IS adoption decision, because the cost of IS, especially ERP system and lack of sufficient technical knowledge can inhibit IS growth in SMEs (Cragg and King, 1993). Another significant organizational factor is organizational size. Regarding to technological factors, “trialability” is defined as the level that a new technology can be experiment with (Rogers, 2003). “Trialability” was also found to be a significant factor in the adoption of IS (Ramdani et al., 2009). In addition, SMEs prefer to experiment with ES before they decide to adopt it (Ramdani et al., 2009). The experiment with ES can assist SMEs to evaluate the ES performance and to find out the problems to solve before they implement the ES systems (Ramdani and Kawalek, 2007). Organizational size has also been identified as one of the best adoption predictors of IS innovation (e.g. Mabert et al., 2003; Buonanno, et al., 2005; Raymond and Uwizeyemungu, 2007; Tagliavini et al., 2002).Table 4 summarizes the factors influencing ERP adoption in SMEs.
Table4. Summary of factors influencing ERP adoption in SMEs
4.3 ERP acquisition
different SMEs and LEs, so different sized companies may have different requirements for ERP systems, many local IT companies are providing a lot of different ERP solutions according to different methods (Van der Vorst, 2012); this may lead to different costs of ERP systems. In addition, Van der Vorst (2012) proposed three reasons for the importance of ERP selection for SMEs as followed: (1) the decision on the selection of ERP systems takes most of the time once in many years; (2) the ERP selection has a long-term impact on the company and the risk related to ERP selection for SMEs is much higher than for LEs. Given the fact that the SMEs have limited financial and technical resources, the investment on ERP systems in comparison to their turnover (more than 5%), thus, the failure of ERP implementation usually leads to bankruptcy of the organization (Van der Vorst (2012); (3) Normally, SMEs do not use the professional way to select the appropriate ERP systems; they often listen to their friends, customers and suppliers opinions instead of professional consultants. As a result, the selection is inclined to be incorrect. In conclusion, the selection of ERP systems in the strategic decision-making process of ERP is very important and risky (Van der Vorst, 2012).
information system is the level of compatibility with the business process (Van Everdingen et al. 2000). However, sometimes the features of the ERP systems do not fit the organization business procedure and the requirement appropriately and thus the organizations face a difficulty to decide either to change the business procedure to fit the ERP system with minimum customization or to modify ERP system to match the business processes (Buonanno et al., 2005).
Support Scalability User-friendliness Cost Flexibility Fit 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Support Scalability User-friendliness Cost Flexibility Fit
Relative Importance
Figure7. Criteria for information system selection (adopted from Van Everdingen et al., 2000)
Functionlity product Quality product Implementation speed Interface other systems Price Market leadership Corporate image International orientation 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Functionlity product Quality product Implementation speed Interface other system... Price
Market leadership Corporate image International orientat...
Relative importance
Figure8. Criteria for supplier selection (adopted from Van Everdingen et al., 2000)
Table6. Summary of ERP selection criteria in SMEs
Table 6 summarizes these ERP selection criteria in SMEs. As we can see, several ERP selection criteria by Reuther and Chattopadhyay (2004) are similar to the findings from Van Everdingen et al. (2000); cost, flexibility and scalability are considered as critical ERP selection criteria in SMEs. The criteria flexibility and scalability indicate the requirement for a certain degree of the system customization and the ability of the system to improve with the growth of the business (Reuther and Chattopadhyay, 2004). Because SMEs have limited financial, technological resources and have much more room to grow in the future, so cost, flexibility and scalability are important ERP selection criteria. The criterion flexibility also supports the findings related to ERP selection criteria identified by Bernroider and Koch (2001).
Not only are the ERP selection criteria proposed in the previous literatures, but also the factors influencing ERP selection are identified to achieve a better understanding of ERP acquisition and selection process. Laukkanen et al. (2007) explored the relationship between enterprise size and ERP selection process by comparing Finnish small, medium-sized and large enterprises. Besides, Laukkanen et
al. (2007) found that small companies have a significant lower sufficiency of
of participation in ERP selection process than the medium-sized companies. More specific, Laukkanen et al. (2007) also explored the role of external influences in ERP selection among small, medium-sized and large companies (see Table 7).
Table7. External factors influencing ERP selection (adopted from Laukkanen et al, 2007)
As we can see from Table 7, the larger customers’ demands and suppliers have minimal impact on ERP selection process among all kinds of companies. The customers’ recommendations have the second greatest impact on ERP selection among all different companies. The most influential external factor for ERP selection is the companies’ own analysis of ERP system, which is widely used as a basis for ERP selection among all kinds of companies (Laukkanen et al., 2007). Therefore, based on the findings by Laukkanen et al. (2007), the most important external factor influencing ERP selection is company’s own analysis of ERP system. Comparing to the larger companies, SMEs have limited IT resources to analyze ERP system, thus, SMEs are inclined to encounter more difficulties in ERP selection process than LEs.
Besides, an effective approach for ERP system selection was found by Xu et al. (2010) as followed: (1) data collection; (2) preliminary selection; (3) key functionalities matching selection; (4) final evaluation; (4) decision making; (5) prepare the implementation and design system.
companies would have different specific requirement for ERP systems. Sometimes the ERP systems they selected do not match their business processes or operations. This is because of the dissimilarities between different industry types companies. However, there are rare ERP systems that are perfect and well-fitted for all businesses in different industries (Klaus et al., 2000; Bernroider and Koch, 2001). As a result, during ERP selection process, the SMEs should also consider their specific requirement for ERP system results from their industry type.
Although there are many big ERP system vendors in the market, such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Sage et al., SMEs still have many other solutions supported by other small ERP system vendors. Besides, it is also possible to adopt in-house developed enterprise system. In the prior ERP for SMEs literature, Olsen and Sætre (2007a) and Olsen and Sætre (2007b) found that the standard ERP system can reinforce the rigid structures and inflexibility on SMEs. However, sometimes the in-house developed system might fit the organization better. Accordingly, a case study conducted by Sledgianowski et al. (2008) stated that SMEs can achieve more benefits and flexibility through ERP outsourcing in some cases. However, Poba-Nzaou and Raymond (2011) stated that recently developed in-house and open source ERP systems are more dangerous than other types of answers. Poba-Nzaou and Raymond (2011) also concluded that SMEs aren’t only looking for compatible systems for their business but at the same time are looking for same size suppliers with a similar strategic orientation. Therefore, the SMEs prefer to choose the ERP system supplied from smaller vendors, because such smaller vendors are more similar to SMEs (Poba-Nzaou and Raymond, 2011).
4.4 ERP Implementation
implementation. Besides, from the prior literatures, we can also found that ERP implementation is a hot topic, a number of literatures studies ERP implementation from different perspectives.
Critical success factor is one of the hottest topics in terms of ERP implementation. Several articles have identified CSFs for ERP implementation in SMEs. Table 8 (adapted from Aarabi et al., 2011) summarizes the CSFs for ERP implementation in SMEs. As we can see from Table 8, “effective education and training” and “business plan, vision and clear goals” are the most important two CSFs of ERP implementation in SMEs, following by “top management support” which is also considered as one of most important CSFs of implementation in LEs. This is because ERP project is costly and time-consuming that its implementation concerns the strategy of the organization that needs the support from top management. In the process of ERP implementation, top management not only provides human resources, financial resources, but also need to assess the effect of ERP implementation and delegate power to the implementation project team (Xia et al. 2009). As the ERP systems are totally new system for SMEs, education and training are required and they are also the best way to popularizing ERP and improve ERP implementation (Xia et al. 2009). “Effective communication and commitment” and “project management” rank third place. “Business process reengineering”, “user knowledge” and “effective decision making” are the least important CSFs of implementation in SMEs. Since SMEs have different challenges when implementing ERP system compared to LEs and SMEs have less experience in IT system adoption, less technological resources to solve such complex system problems, so they need more support from both ERP vendor and external consultants than LEs (Hustad and Bechina, 2011). However, to the contrary, support from both ERP vendor and external consultants might be less critical for LEs. Because normally LEs have their own IT departments and the departments can provide strong technical support for EPR implementation (Hustad and Bechina, 2011).
Table8. CSFs of ERP implementation in SMEs (adapted from Aarabi et al., 2011) Some articles studied risk management during the ERP implementation process in SMEs. Poba-Nzaou et al. (2008) discussed the methods for risk management in ERP implementation and minimization in manufacturing SMEs. Iskanius (2009) advises to use RAM (Risk Analysis Method) to identify and evaluate the risks of ERP usage. Iskanius (2009) also suggests using CAM (Characteristics analysis method) to assist SMEs in dividing the project into the sub-projects. While Ojala et al. (2006) described how SMEs should act during the process of ERP implementation as there are risks involved. Markus and Tanis (2000) suggest risk-management right from the start in order to control the risk of ERP impelementation.
implement ERP systems. Although the impacts of consultants have an important part in the implementation of ERP systems for SMEs (Aarabi et al., 2011), they still could face resistance from managers of SMEs (Adam and O’doherty, 2000). However by using the Grounded Theory approach, Koh et al. (2009) concludes that if SMEs apply an SME-Specific ERP system, a need of external consulants are not necessary. This can lead to a significant decrease in investments.
4.5 Relationship
Lopez-Perez and Rodriguez-Ariza (2013) also found out that there is a correlation between company size and a probable existence of a board. In other words, organization size is linked to governance structures. Therefore, usually a larger company has a board to make the important decision together whereas the strategic decision normally made by the owner of SMEs. Thus, ERP adoption decisions in SMEs might depend on the knowledge level of the owner of SMEs which might lead to higher risk of failure. Therefore, organization size can also influence ERP adoption from the governance structure dimension.
Some distinct differences between different sized enterprises on the ERP systems they selected were found in some papers (e.g. Mabert et al., 2003; Bernroider and Koch, 2000). The results of their survey showed that LEs prefer big ERP system vendors whereas SMEs favor small vendors (Mabert et al., 2003). This is because small vendors provide cheaper ERP system than large ERP vendors. This has confirmed that different sized companies may choose dissimilar ERP system with different price. The organization size plays an important role in choosing ERP systems, the changes in weight ascribed to ERP selecion criteria between dissimilar sized companies have been explored (Bernroider and Koch, 2000). In addition, LEs involve more workers in the process of decision-making, compared to SMEs whom have a more centralized method of decision-making (Bernroider and Koch, 2000). As we mentioned before, in general, the decision-maker of SME is only one or two top managers or owners of the company that might have great impact on the decision of ERP selection (Ramdani et al., 2009), thus, whether the systems are appropriate or not it depends on the top manager or the owner of the company. The governance structures play an important role in ERP selection.
application of these methods is found to be significantly related to organization size (Bernroider and Koch, 2000), because the method used in ERP selection process can have great impact on the decision of ERP selection. Beyond that, Mabert et al. (2003) also found that LEs are more likely to select multiple systems than smaller companies. This is because LEs have more global operations and larger global markets that lead to higher complexity of organizational structure (Mabert et al., 2003). LEs need to use multiple systems to ensure the normal operations of the companies. Therefore, it can be argued that organization size can influence ERP selection from the dimension of the organizational structures and the methods they used in ERP selection.
5. Discussion
The study reviewed 118 articles related to ERP systems in SMEs published from 1999 to 2014, crossing 43 different journals. We found that Journal of Enterprise Information Management published most relevant articles (16 articles) during this time period. Besides, we also found that the research interest on ERP in SMEs is increasing as there is a rising trend of the amount of relevant published articles in general. However, 118 relevant articles across 16 year, is still a very limited amount compared to the number of articles related to ERP systems in LEs. As the ERP system market of SMEs is very big, not only scholars should pay more attentions to the research on ERP systems in SMEs, but also the ERP vendors should put more effort into the development of ERP systems acquired for SMEs. As we can see, the research field of ERP systems in SMEs didn’t receive the appropriate attention it deserved. The research on ERP systems in SMEs is at its early stage, it has a large market potential in the futures, both scholars and ERP vendors should not ignore. Following the three ERP life-cycle phases, adoption, acquisition and implementation, a discussion and future research direction in terms of each phase is presented in the following part.
There is no consistent definition of “ERP life-cycle”. The term “EPR life-cycle” varied in ERP literatures. Some authors (e.g. Bharathi et al., 2012) identified these ERP phases as (1) Planning, (2) Acquisition, (3) Implementation, (4) Usage and percolation and (5) Extension. In this paper, we use the model proposed by Esteves and Pastor (1999), identifying the ERP phases as (1) Adoption, (2) Acquisition, (3) Implementation, (4) Use and maintenance, (5) Evolution and (6) Retirement. Also, the term “ERP adoption” varies from different authors. In some cases, it refers to the final phase during the process that the company accepts and uses the system (Haddara et al., 2013); in other cases, it refers to the preliminary phase when a company decides to use ERP systems (Esteves and Pastor, 1999). Moreover, different countries have different definition of “SMEs”; this might lead to inconsistent in research findings.
influential factors by using TOE framework which related to technical, organizational and environmental context. Although, a surprising finding suggested that environmental factors are insignificant to ES adoption (Ramdani et al., 2009)), this finding is still not so convincing, since the economic environmental factors or political factors such as preferential policy for SMEs given by the government, or the global economic environment which have great impact on SMEs that might influence the ERP adoption in SMEs. As a result, we suggest the researchers to pay more attention to environmental factors which might influence the ERP adoption in SMEs.
The selection of ERP systems in SMEs is the main topic in terms of ERP acquisition. However, a few papers have discussed the evaluation performance of ERP selection in SMEs. Besides, there is no clear demarcation to identify whether an ERP system is appropriate or not for an SME. Therefore, a clear demarcation should be identified. Also, few papers have discussed the approach to select an appropriate ERP system.
The main research topic related to ERP implementation in SMEs is the critical success factors for ERP implementation in SMEs. However, different papers have different lists of CSFs for ERP implementation. Besides, these CSFs are based on the case studies or survey in different countries or regions (such as India, Belgium et al.) In general, there are some similarities among the SMEs from different countries or regions; but there are also many differences between these SMEs in different regions.
impact of different kinds of industries. In current literatures, more papers focused on manufacturing SMEs. However, due to the dissimilar characteristics of different industries, SMEs of different industries might have some specific CSFs for ERP implementation or have different methods to implement ERP systems. For further research, the impact of industrial characteristics of SMEs on CSFs for ERP implementation is a valuable research direction.
6. Conclusion
This paper aims to provide both theoretical and practical contributions to scholars, ERP vendors, and ERP practitioners by presenting a comprehensive literature review on the three most important ERP life-cycle phases (adoption, acquisition and implementation) in SMEs. For the theoretical contribution, this paper presented an analysis of the evolution of the current literatures related to ERP system in SMEs and what the status quo is. In addition, this paper presented the detailed findings of ERP adoption, ERP acquisition and ERP implementation in SMEs to assist the scholars who want to investigate this domain to know what has been studied and what hasn’t been done, then to identify the research gap for further research. Also this paper can help those users who are the first time to use ERP system in SMEs to become quickly familiar with this topic. Regarding the practical contributions, this paper can assist SMEs’ managers to know if there is a necessity for them to adopt an ERP system and make a better decision on whether to adopt an ERP system or not. This paper also can help the SMEs’ manager and consultants to select the appropriate ERP systems for their organizations by providing the detailed selection criteria of ERP system in SMEs, which might reduce the cost dramatically both in purchasing and in the implementation process. In addition, appropriate ERP system can help company to achieve a better performance. Moreover, this paper can assist the ERP implementation project team and consultant to increase the success rate of ERP implementation by providing the CSFs of ERP implementation in SMEs. Finally, we gave research findings and other suggestions to improve our knowledge of ERP systems in SMEs.
References
Aarabi, M., Saman, M. Z. M., Wong, K. Y., Beheshti, H. M., & Zakuan, N. (2011). Critical Success Factors of Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation in Small and Medium Enterprises in Developing Countries: a Review and Research Direction. Proceedings of Industrial Engineering and Service Science.
Achanga, P., Shehab, E., Roy, R. and Nelder, G. (2006), “Critical success factors for lean implementation within SMEs”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 460-71.
Adam, F., & O'doherty, P. (2000). Lessons from enterprise resource planning implementations in Ireland–towards smaller and shorter ERP projects. Journal of information technology, 15(4), 305-316.
Ahmad, M. M., & Pinedo Cuenca, R. (2013). Critical success factors for ERP implementation in SMEs. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 29(3), 104-111.
Al-Mashari, M. (2000). Constructs of process change management in ERP context: A focus on SAP R/3.
Al-Mashari, M., Al-Mudimigh, A. and Zairi, M. (2003), “Enterprise resource planning: a taxonomy of critical factors”, European Journal of Operational Research, Arnold, V. (2006), “Behavioral research opportunities: understanding the impact of enterprise systems”, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 7, pp. 7-17.
Association for Information Systems. (2011).Senior Scholar's Basket of Journals. Retrieved from Association for Information Systems: http://aisnet.org/?SeniorScholarBasket
Bendoly, E., & Jacobs, F. R. (2004). ERP architectural/operational alignment for order-processing performance. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, 24(1), 99-117.
Bernroider, E., & Koch, S. (2000). Differences in Characteristics of the ERP System Selection Process Between Small or Medium and Large Organizations. AMCIS 2000
Proceedings, 81.
Bharathi, V., Vaidya, O., & Parikh, S. (2012). Prioritizing and ranking critical success factors for ERP adoption in SMEs. AIMS International Journal of Management, 6(1), 23-40.
Bingi, P., Sharma, M. K., & Godla, J. K. (1999). Critical issues affecting an ERP implementation. IS Management, 16(3), 7-14.
Blili, S., & Raymond, L. (1993). Information technology: threats and opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. International journal of information management, 13(6), 439-448.
Botta-Genoulaz, V., & Millet, P. A. (2006). An investigation into the use of ERP systems in the service sector. International Journal of Production Economics, 99(1), 202-221.
Botta-Genoulaz, V., Millet, P. A., & Grabot, B. (2005). A survey on the recent research literature on ERP systems. Computers in Industry, 56(6), 510-522.
Bradley, J. (2008), “Management based critical success factors in the implementation of enterprise resource planning systems”, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 205-25.
Buonanno, G., Faverio, P., Pigni, F., Ravarini, A., Sciuto, D., & Tagliavini, M. (2005). Factors affecting ERP system adoption: a comparative analysis between SMEs and large companies. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 18(4), 384-426. Chen, W., & Hirschheim, R. (2004). A paradigmatic and methodological examination of information systems research from 1991 to 2001. Information Systems Journal, 14(3), 197-235.
Choe, J. M. (1996). The relationships among performance of accounting information systems, influence factors, and evolution level of information systems. Journal of
Management Information Systems, 215-239.
Yeh, C. T., Miozzo, M., & Vurdubakis, T. (2006). The importance of being local? Learning among Taiwan's enterprise solutions providers. Journal of Enterprise
Information Management, 19(1), 30-49.
Cragg, P. B., & King, M. (1993). Small-firm computing: motivators and inhibitors. Mis Quarterly, 17(1), 47-60.
from here? Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), 7(2), 4.
Deep, A., Guttridge, P., Dani, S., & Burns, N. (2008). Investigating factors affecting ERP selection in made-to-order SME sector. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 19(4), 430-446.
Donovan, R. M. (2000). Why the Controversy over ROI from ERP?. Midrange ERP, January.
Doom, C., Milis, K., Poelmans, S., & Bloemen, E. (2010). Critical success factors for ERP implementations in Belgian SMEs. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 23(3), 378-406.
EBSCO Industries. (2014). Business Source Premier. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Online Research Databases: http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/business-source-premier
Ein-Dor, P., & Segev, E. (1978). Organizational context and the success of management information systems. Management Science, 24(10), 1064-1077.
Esteves, J., & Bohorquez, V. (2007). AN UPDATED ERP SYSTEMS ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: 2001-2005. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 19.
Esteves, J., & Pastor, J. (1999). An ERP lifecycle-based research agenda. In1st International Workshop in Enterprise Management & Resource Planning.
Esteves, J., & Pastor, J. (2001). Enterprise resource planning systems research: an annotated bibliography. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 7(8), 1-52.
Francalanci, C. (2001). Predicting the implementation effort of ERP projects: empirical evidence on SAP/R3. Journal of Information Technology, 16(1), 33-48.
Gable, G., & Stewart, G. (1999, August). SAP R/3 implementation issues for small to medium enterprises. In Proceedings of the 5th Americas Conference on Information Systems, Milwaukee, WI (pp. 779-781). Palgrave MacMillan.
Ghobadian, A., & Gallear, D. N. (1996). Total quality management in SMEs.Omega, 24(1), 83-106.
Haddara, M. (2011, June). ERP adoption cost factors in SMEs. In European and
Haddara, M., & Zach, O. (2011). ERP systems in SMEs: A literature review. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 1-10). IEEE.
Haddara, M., & Zach, O. (2012). ERP systems in SMEs: An extended literature review. International Journal of Information Science, 2(6), 106-116.
Haddara, M., Elragal, A., Munkelt, T., Völker, S., Auinger, A., Nedbal, D., &
Hochmeier, A. (2013). ERP adoption cost factors identification and classification: a study in SMEs. ERP adoption cost factors identification and classification: a study in
SMEs.
Hallikainen, P., Kivijaervi, H., Rossi, M., Sarpola, S., & Talvinen, J. (2002). Evaluating IT investments: selection of ERP software in Finnish SMEs. InJulkaisussa
Proceedings of the 13th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Melbourne, Australia.
Hambrick, D. C. (1981). Specialization of environmental scanning activities among upper level executives. Journal of management studies, 18(3), 299-320.
Hung, S. Y., Chang, S. I., & Lee, P. J. (2004, July). Critical Factors of ERP Adoption for Small-and Medium-Sized Enterprises: An Empirical Study. InPACIS (p. 57). Hustad, E., & Bechina, A. A. (2011). A study of the ERP Project Life Cycles in Small-and-Medium–Sized Enterprises: Critical Issues and Lessons Learned. World
Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 60, 2011.
Iacovou, C. L., Benbasat, I., & Dexter, A. S. (1995). Electronic data interchange and small organizations: adoption and impact of technology. MIS quarterly, 465-485.
Illa, X. B., Franch, X., & Pastor, J. A. (2000). Formalising ERP selection criteria. In Software Specification and Design, 2000. Tenth International Workshop on (pp. 115-122). IEEE.
Iskanius, P. (2009). Risk Management in ERP Project in the Context of SMEs. Engineering Letters, 17(4).
Jang, W. Y., Lin, C. I., & Pan, M. J. (2009). Business strategies and the adoption of ERP: evidence from Taiwan's communications industry. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 20(8), 1084-1098.
Technology, 21(1), 1-23.
Kagan, A., Lau, K., & Nusgart, K. R. (1990). Information system usage within small business firms. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 14(3), 25-37.
Keil, M., & Tiwana, A. (2006). Relative importance of evaluation criteria for enterprise systems: a conjoint study. Information Systems Journal, 16(3), 237-262.
Kimberly, J. R. (1976). Organizational size and the structuralist perspective: A review, critique, and proposal. Administrative Science Quarterly, 571-597.
Klaus, H., Rosemann, M., & Gable, G. G. (2000). What is ERP? Information systems
frontiers, 2(2), 141-162.
Kliem, R. L. (2000). Risk management for business process reengineering projects. Information Systems Management, 17(4), 71-73.
Koh, S. C. L., Gunasekaran, A., & Cooper, J. R. (2009). The demand for training and consultancy investment in SME-specific ERP systems implementation and operation. International journal of production economics, 122(1), 241-254.
Lang, J. R., Calantone, R. J., & Gudmundson, D. (1997). Small firm information seeking as a response to environmental threats and opportunities. Journal of Small Business Management, 35(1), 11-23.
Laukkanen, S., Sarpola, S., & Hallikainen, P. (2005). ERP System Adoption-Does the Size Matter?. In System Sciences, 2005. HICSS'05. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 226b-226b). IEEE.
Laukkanen, S., Sarpola, S., & Hallikainen, P. (2007). Enterprise size matters: objectives and constraints of ERP adoption. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 20(3), 319-334.
Lee, J. (2004), “Discriminant analysis of technology adoption behaviour: a case of internet technologies in small businesses”, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 57-66
Levenburg, N., Magal, S. R., & Kosalge, P. (2006). An Exploratory Investigation of Organizational Factors and e‐Business Motivations Among SMFOEs in the US. Electronic Markets, 16(1), 70-84.
Lin, I. and Ford, D.W. (2004), “ERP selection for small and medium-sized manufactures”, Proceedings International Conference of Manufacturing Research, Liverpool, UK.
Loh, T. C., & Koh*, S. C. L. (2004). Critical elements for a successful enterprise resource planning implementation in small-and medium-sized enterprises. International journal of production research, 42(17), 3433-3455.
Lopez-Perez, M. V., & Rodriguez-Ariza, L. (2013). Ownership and trust in the governance structures of Spanish-Moroccan SMEs constituted as international joint ventures. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 21(3), 609-624.
Mabert, V. A., Soni, A., & Venkataramanan, M. A. (2003). The impact of organization size on enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in the US manufacturing sector. Omega, 31(3), 235-246.
Mabert, V.M., Soni, A. and Venkataramanan, M.A. (2000), “Enterprise resource planning survey of US manufacturing firms”, Production and Inventory Management Journal, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 52-88.
Markus, L.M. and Tanis, C. (2000). The Enterprise System Experience – From Adoption to Success, in R.W. Zmud (ed.) Framing the Domain of IT Management: Projecting the futureythrough the past, Cincinnati, Ohio: Pinnaflex Education Resources, pp. 173–207.
McAdam, R. (2002). Large Scale Innovation Reengineering Methodology in SMEs Positivistic and Phenomenological Approaches. International Small Business
Journal, 20(1), 33-52.
Møller, C. (2005). ERP II: a conceptual framework for next-generation enterprise systems? Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 18(4), 483-497.
Moon, Y. B. (2007). Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): a review of the literature. International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development,4(3), 235-264.
Olhager, J., & Selldin, E. (2003). Enterprise resource planning survey of Swedish manufacturing firms. European Journal of Operational Research, 146(2), 365-373. Olsen, K. A., & Sætre, P. (2007a). IT for niche companies: is an ERP system the solution? Information Systems Journal, 17(1), 37-58.
Oliver, D. and Romm, C. (1999), “Enterprise resource planning systems: motivations and expectations”, Proceedings of EMRPS’99, Centro Studi San Salador, Venice, 25-27 November.
Oliver, D., & Romm, C. (2000). ERP systems: The route to adoption. AMCIS 2000
Proceedings, 209.
Olsen, K. A., & Sætre, P. (2007b). ERP for SMEs–is proprietary software an alternative? Business Process Management Journal, 13(3), 379-389.
Parr, A.N. and Shanks, G. (2000), “A taxonomy of ERP implementation approaches”, Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, HI, 4-7 January, Vol. 7, IEEE Computer Society, Piscataway, NJ, p. 7018.
Pearce, J. A., Chapman, B. L., & David, F. R. (1982). Environmental scanning for small and growing firms. Journal of Small Business Management, 20(3), 27-34.
Poba-Nzaou, P., & Raymond, L. (2011). Managing ERP system risk in SMEs: a multiple case study. Journal of Information Technology, 26(3), 170-192.
Poba-Nzaou, P., Raymond, L., & Fabi, B. (2008). Adoption and risk of ERP systems in manufacturing SMEs: a positivist case study. Business Process Management
Journal, 14(4), 530-550.
Premkumar, G. (2003). A meta-analysis of research on information technology implementation in small business. Journal of organizational computing and electronic commerce, 13(2), 91-121.
Premkumar, G. and Roberts, M. (1999), “Adoption of new information technologies in rural small businesses”, Omega: The International Journal of Management Science, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 467-84.
Ramdani, B., & Kawalek, P. (2007). SME Adoption of Enterprise Systems in the Northwest of England. In Organizational dynamics of technology-based innovation:
Diversifying the research agenda (pp. 409-429). Springer US.
Rao, S. S. (2000). Enterprise resource planning: business needs and technologies. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 100(2), 81-88.Vol. 146, pp. 352-64.
Raymond, L. (1990). Organizational context and information systems success: a contingency approach. Journal of Management Information Systems, 5-20.
Raymond, L., & Uwizeyemungu, S. (2007). A profile of ERP adoption in manufacturing SMEs. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 20(4), 487-502.
Reuther, D., & Chattopadhyay, G. (2004). Critical factors for enterprise resources planning system selection and implementation projects within small to medium enterprises. In Engineering Management Conference, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE International (Vol. 2, pp. 851-855). IEEE.
Rockart, J. F. (1978). Chief executives define their own data needs. Harvard business
review, 57(2), 81-93.
Rogers, E.M. (2003), Diffusion of Innovations, The Free Press, New York, NY.
Ross, J. W., & Vitale, M. R. (2000). The ERP revolution: surviving vs. thriving.Information systems frontiers, 2(2), 233-241.
Schlichter, B. R., & Kraemmergaard, P. (2010). A comprehensive literature review of the ERP research field over a decade. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 23(4), 486-520.
Schmitz, C., & Biermann, P. (2007). Beschaffungsprozesse mittelständischer Unternehmen (Aquisition process for SME). ZfKE (Journal of SME and Entrepreneurship), 55(4), 243-265
Shahawai, S. S., & Idrus, R. (2010, March). Pre-considered factors affecting ERP system adoption in Malaysian SMEs. In Computer Modelling and Simulation
(UKSim), 2010 12th International Conference on (pp. 323-328). IEEE.
Shehab, E. M., Sharp, M. W., Supramaniam, L., & Spedding, T. A. (2004). Enterprise resource planning: An integrative review. Business Process Management Journal, 10(4), 359-386.
Snider, B., da Silveira, G. J., & Balakrishnan, J. (2009). ERP implementation at SMEs: analysis of five Canadian cases. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 29(1), 4-29.
Swamidass, P. M., & Kotha, S. (1998). Explaining manufacturing technology use, firm size and performance using a multidimensional view of technology. Journal of
operations management, 17(1), 23-37.
Swanson, E. B. (1994). Information systems innovation among organizations.
Management science, 40(9), 1069-1092.
Tagliavini, M., Faverio, P., Ravarini, A., Pigni, F., & Buonanno, G. (2002, July). Exploring the use of ERP systems by SMEs. In Proceedings of 6th World Multi
Conference on Systemics Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, Florido (pp. 14-18).
Thong, J. Y. (1999). An integrated model of information systems adoption in small businesses. Journal of management information systems, 15(4), 187-214.
Tornatzky, L.G. and Fleischer, M. (1990), The Process of Technological Innovation, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA.
Upadhyay, P., Jahanyan, S., & Dan, P. K. (2011). Factors influencing ERP implementation in Indian manufacturing organisations: A study of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 24(2), 130-145.
Van der Vorst, C. (2012). Approach for selecting ERP software at Mid-size companies reflecting critical success factors.Journal of US-China Public
Administration, 9(9), 1057-1068.
Van Everdingen, Y., Van Hillegersberg, J., & Waarts, E. (2000). Enterprise resource planning: ERP adoption by European midsize companies. Communications of the ACM, 43(4), 27-31.
Welsh, J. A., & White, J. F. (1981). A small business is not a little big business. Harvard Business review, 59(4), 18.
Winkelmann, A., & Klose, K. (2008, January). Experiences While Selecting, Adapting and Implementing ERP Systems in SMEs: A Case Study. InAMCIS (p. 257). Wong, K. Y., & Aspinwall, E. (2004). Characterizing knowledge management in the small business environment. Journal of Knowledge management, 8(3), 44-61.
