Eric Waarts

The Effect of National Culture on the Adoption of Innovations

Studies on the adoption of innovations by companies generally include micro-level and meso-level variables. This study adds to the literature by investigating the role of national culture (i.e. a macro-level variable) to explain differences in adoption rates across countries. In particular, we investigate the effects of the five Hofstede culture dimensions and the culture dimensions proposed by Hall on country adoption rates. Hypothesized effects were tested using a large-scale empirical study concerning the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software by mid-size companies covering ten European countries. Results indicate that variables describing national culture have a significant influence on the country adoption rates.

Enterprise resource planning: ERP adoption by European midsize companies

JE A N -F R A N C O IS P O D EV IN U ntil recently, the major ERP vendors (SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, and Baan) were mainly targeting the high end of the market (companies with more than 1,000 employees), but this market comes close to saturation. Many large companies have already adopted ERP systems and are planning the next step of how to use the installed ERP infrastructures as foundations for e-business [1, 2]. Most of the smalland medium-sized companies still have to make the decision to deploy ERP. The midsize market is an interesting market, for example, the number of midsize companies (50–1,000 employees) in Europe is estimated to exceed 100,000. Data from our research shows that with average annual IT budgets of more than

Change factors requiring agility and implications for IT

500,000, the total European midsize market for IT products and services surpasses a staggering

The dynamics of factors affecting the adoption of innovations

50 billion per year. This market as a whole is very attractive for the major ERP vendors. However, since the wave of adoption by midsize companies is in its early stages, little is known about developments and drivers that form the basis of ERP adoption decisions. The purpose of this article is to understand developments in ERP adoption within the European mid-market. Our empirical information is based on a large-scale European multicountry/multi-industry survey conducted in mid-1998. Based on the survey data, we will address various issues, such as: How did ERP penetration in the mid-market develop until 1998 Yvonne van Everdingen, Jos van Hillegersberg, and Eric Waarts

Explaining Competitor’s Reactions to New Product Introductions: The Roles of Event Characteristics, Managerial Interpretation, and Competitive Context

The current highly dynamic business environment requires businesses to be agile. Business agility is the ability to swiftly and easily change businesses and business processes beyond the normal level of flexibility to effectively manage unpredictable external and internal changes. This study reports on a cross-industry analysis of change factors requiring agility and assesses agility gaps that companies are facing in four industry sectors in the Netherlands. A framework was constructed to measure the perceived gaps between the current level of business agility and the required level of business agility. The questionnaire and in-depth interviews held reveal that todays businesses perceive to lack the agility required to quickly respond to changes, whose speed and requirements are difficult to predict. The paper presents rankings of generic and sector-specific agility gaps. These show that although some generic change factors requiring agility exist, the change factors requiring agility that cause agility gaps differ across industry sectors. Among the factors that enable or hinder business agility, the existence of inflexible legacy systems is perceived to be a very important disabler in achieving more business agility. A number of basic principles and directions are discussed to transform Information Technology from barrier into key enabler for increased agility in organizations and business networks.

Fashion retailers rolling out across multi‐cultural Europe

An abundance of IT innovations are constantly struggling for market acceptance. Various models have been proposed in the literature in order to aid understanding of the principles behind the adoption of IT innovations, but most of them implicitly assume that the factors explaining adoption decisions do not change over time. This study challenges that assumption and adds to the existing literature by investigating the dynamics of the factors influencing adoption. Our general proposition is that the driving factors in adopting innovations will change as the diffusion of the innovation in the market progresses. A large-scale empirical study was carried out among medium-sized companies in a variety of European countries and industries concerning the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The findings strongly indicate that the factors affecting late adoption of ERP differ significantly from the factors explaining early adoption. At early stages of the diffusion process adoption tends to be especially driven by a combination of internal strategic drives and attitudes of the firm together with external forces like industry competition and supplier activities. Later on, the mix of adoption stimulating factors seems to be focusing more on implementation issues such as the scalability of the system, the number of seats and the yearly available budget. The study leads to both new methodological insights and substantive conclusions that also have practical implications.

Assessing Business Agility: A Multi-Industry Study in The Netherlands

Competitive reactions to new product introductions can be explained by observable characteristics related to the event, and by the interpretations of these factors by the defending competitors. A general model of competitive response is developed to explore the mediating role of interpretation factors between event characteristics and reaction decisions, and to study the contextual factors that moderate the relationship between event characteristics and interpretations. Results clearly demonstrate that if the interpretation factor is not taken into account researchers may overlook the influence of important variables explaining competitive reactions. Also, results indicate heterogeneity among managers regarding their interpretation of observable characteristics. Possible moderating factors are explored. The outcomes of this study are important both for new scientific insights in competitive reaction decision making, and for managers who act in the competitive arena.

The Relationship between Time and Success in Administrative Automation Projects — A Study in Decision-Making

Purpose – Many retailers are expanding throughout Europe, while it is well‐known that large differences still exist between the European countries. This paper aims to explore to what extent the historical expansion sequence patterns of retailers operating across Europe are driven by cultural factors.Design/methodology/approach – The paper derives a cultural map of Western Europe based on data of Hofstede and Hall. Three important cultural clusters are identified. Next, this study investigates the expansion sequences of nine big EU‐ and US‐based fashion‐clothing retailers across those three cultural clusters.Findings – The results show that initial expansion typically takes place in a neighbor country belonging to the same cultural cluster. Subsequent expansion tends to follow a stepwise cluster‐by‐cluster pattern, where retailers make cluster jumps, first expanding in the same cluster, but already move to another before the first is completed.Practical implications – For US/Canada‐based retailers as well ...

ERP Adoption by European Midsize Companies.

This study reports on a cross-industry analysis of the current drivers for agility and agility gaps, which companies are facing in four industry sectors in the Netherlands. A framework was constructed to measure the gaps between the current level of business agility and the required level of business agility. The questionnaire and in-depth interviews reveal that today’s businesses lack the agility required to quickly respond to largely unanticipated changes. The paper presents rankings of generic and sector-specific agility gaps. These show that although some generic drivers exist, key drivers are very different across industry sectors.

The Influence of National Culture on the Adoption Status of Innovations:: An Empirical Study of Firms Across Europe

This article is concerned with the relationship between time and success in the context of the procurement and implementation of administrative automation projects. It gives insight into the optimal thoroughness for user organizations to prepare themselves for the purchase of a new system. Interest in the subject stems from a contradiction found in the literature: on the one hand thorough (internal) planning and preparation of projects are recommended while on the other hand other authors state a plea for early (external) co-operation and negotiation with suppliers. Is a very thorough internal preparation a good pay-off or is it better to interact with potential suppliers after a restricted internal preparation? Results from this empirical research — which is part of a major study on marketing and purchasing of mainframe computer-systems — show that an optimum in thoroughness of internal preparation exists which is most effective regarding the quality of the project. A few important implications for user organizations are also mentioned.