Zoonky Lee

An ERP implementation case study from a knowledge transfer perspective

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) application is an enterprise-wide package that tightly integrates all necessary business functions into a single system with a shared database. An ERP implementation often entails transferring the business knowledge incorporated in the basic architecture of the software package into the adopting organization. This article proposes a new approach to analysing ERP implementations from a knowledge transfer perspective. It also contributes to a better understanding of competitive advantage based on process knowledge when standardized business processes are implemented by an organization. The article begins by identifying the types of knowledge transferred during an ERP implementation and the factors affecting this transfer. It then investigates how conflicts between the business knowledge transferred from the ERP package and the existing organizational knowledge are resolved. During our investigation, we used in-depth interviews, process analysis and documentation analysis in order to analyse an early implementation stage of ERP. The results indicated that the business processes which are incorporated in an ERP package are transferred into an organization along with the business rules inherent in the processes due to process automation, the limited flexibility of such packages and the cross-functional nature of an ERP package. The results also suggested that an organizations adaptive capability concerning role and responsibility redistribution, the development of new types of required knowledge and the introduction of a different knowledge structure influence an organizations ability to internalize these standardized processes into business routines that provide a competitive advantage.

Impediments to successful ERP implementation process

Purpose – As the number of organizations that have implemented enterprise resourceplanning (ERP) systems unsuccessfully increase, it is necessary to establish the impediments in ERP implementations and the extent to which these impact the success of ERP projects. This study aims to identify the critical impediments that large organizations face in the implementation of ERP systems, and the impact of these impediments on overall success of ERP projects by a survey of Fortune 500 organizations.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was prepared based on 47 impediments identified from previous ERP implementation studies.Findings – This study finds that most of critical impediments are from functional coordination problems related to inadequate support from functional units and coordination among functional units, the project management related to business process change, and change management related to resistance of users. In this study, impediments are categorized based on project phases, and differences i...

Social influence on technology acceptance behavior: self-identity theory perspective

Social influence on technology acceptance behavior has been acknowledged but needs to be further articulated. While Subjective Norm (SN) has been dominantly used to capture the essence of social influence, the findings to date has led some researchers to question whether it captures the full extent of social influence. Recently, social psychologists have examined Self-Identity as a construct reflecting social influence on behavior. In particular, Self-Identity has been shown to have significant influence on voluntary behavior and have enduring effects, situations where the Subjective Norm had little effect. This study examines the effect of Self-Identity on technology acceptance decision in the context of a web-based class support system under the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The result demonstrates a significant direct and indirect effect of Self-Identity on technology acceptance. The result also confirms that Self-Identity has significant direct effect on the acceptance in voluntary and experienced situations, while Subjective Norm has no significant effect in both situations. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Topics of interest in IS: evolution of themes and differences between research and practice

The information systems discipline has been criticized in the past for lack of secure foundations, frequent shifts in focus and lack of impact on practice. The study deals with two main issues—evolution of themes in IS research and practice over time and differences between research and practice in the IS area as evidenced by the publication process. More than 3000 articles published across five years in four IS journals and five magazines were examined and categorized by thematic areas. We find journals and magazines focusing on different themes with the former focusing on conceptual and abstract models while the latter devote attention to specific applications. Significantly, academic themes show more variance over time. Apparently, there is no significant increase in the richness of themes being addressed over time but there is evidence of conflicting contemporaneous trends in research and practice. # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Knowledge transfer in work practice: adoption and use of integrated information systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the social context of enterprise resource planning (ERP) adoption and use within an organization, emphasizing a knowledge transfer perspective. This framework is investigated in terms of the conflicts and struggles between the best practices embedded in ERP modules and the interactions of users of the ERP system.Design/methodology/approach – A case study using grounded theory is applied with the rich and detailed interview process. This paper shows how to conduct grounded theory and how to interpret the individual level of analysis to organizational level impacts.Findings – This study analyzes how an organization adopts a unique information system provided by enterprise integration and also suggests the likely consequences of knowledge transfer between the organization perspective embedded in ERP and individual apprehension conceptualizing the mode of human interaction and the type of work practice.Research limitations/implications – This is a case study ...

The management of cross-functional inter-dependencies in ERP implementations: emergent coordination patterns

AbstractThis paper reports a study examining cross-functional coordination in enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects. We collected primary data related to ERP implementations at four large organizations representing different industries and implementation strategies. These are presented through rich descriptions organized on the basis of an emergent process theory framework. Our case studies suggest that there are three main patterns of managing functional inter-dependencies: a)A lean coordination pattern that involves intricately planned ‘vanilla’ implementations using reference process models and strong methodologiesb)A rich coordination pattern that is based on managing inter-dependencies through organizing arrangements and cultural interventions, andc)A mediation pattern that is based on executive mandate or a dominant functional unit laying out the rules of engagement.This study provides practical implications for industry managers engaged in large-scale enterprise system implementations. It also significantly advances theory by outlining and characterizing cross-functional coordination patterns. Our findings confirm that studying surface regularities as well as the underlying situated phenomena, in combination, can help in generating new insights for guiding ERP projects.

Understanding Personal Web Usage in Organizations

Personal web usage, that is, non-work-related use of the Internet for personal purposes during work hours, is a pervasive behavior observed in the daily work environment. U.S. companies have implemented several countermeasures to cope with personal Web usage, but those measures have not successfully mitigated this behavior. Considering the significance of personal Web usage, we need to understand why personal Web usage is not alleviated in current organizations. The goal of this study is to present an empirical investigation of why employees continue personal Web usage based on an extended theory of planned behavior. We are particularly interested in how peoples perceptions of moral dimensions contribute to personal Web usage, recognizing that our work environment becomes more Web-embedded. We conducted a field survey of 426 U.S. business professionals and analyzed the data by using partial least squares. As a result, we demonstrate that an individuals attitude, subjective norm, denial of responsibility, self-efficacy, personal computer availability, seclusion of office, and workload are significant factors affecting personal Web usage. Interestingly, current organizational preventive efforts (e.g., Web-based activity monitoring and filtering systems and policies) and moral obligation are not as significant as we originally expected. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Integrating Software Lifecycle Process Standards with Security Engineering

Since the advent and astronomical rise of the Internet and E-business, organizations must secure their computer systems or risk malicious attacks. While there have been several software lifecycle process standards (SLPS) for both military and industrial software development, their activities and deliverables are not yet integrated with security engineering (SE) activities. This lack of integration has created conflicts among the system development stakeholders (e.g. system acquirers and developers) during secure information systems development projects. This paper proposes an integration model that interweaves all the process activities and deliverables of SLPS with SE activities, taking IEEE/EIA 12207 as an example of SLPS. This model provides practical guidelines for the development of secure information systems while informing stakeholders how SLPS is related to the SE activities.

An experimental study of online complaint management in the online feedback forum

In this study, we begin with the conjecture that the online feedback forum is important with regard to managing reputation and in attracting potential customers in the initial stage of unknown online stores. Using reference influences in marketing and existing information systems (IS) literature on the role of feedback in the electronic market, we developed hypotheses exploring the relations among pervious customers’ feedback in the online forum, successful complaint management against the negative feedback, and potential costumers’ initial trust toward online retailers. In an experimental study, we tested the hypotheses using 68 college students that visit a forged online retailer selling used notebook computers. Our results show that stores can recover from potentially damaged reputations through effective complaint management. The results also implicate that negative feedback adversely affects initial trust.

The effect of buyer feedback scores on internet auction prices

One of the major roles of Internet intermediaries is to help build trust between buyers and sellers for efficient and safe transactions. The buyer feedback system started in online auctions as one of the trust‐building mechanisms on the Internet. As the buyer feedback system is becoming a standard trust‐building mechanism in other e‐commerce sites as well as in online auction, there is an increasing interest about the impact of the buyer feedback system. On the top of recent studies investigating the effects of buyer feedback scores on auction prices, we provide empirical validations using more sophisticated methods. In this study, we tested the relationship between buyer feedback scores and bidding prices using an empirical data set from a leading consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C) Internet auction site. Data analysis results show a strong empirical validation of previous studies. Negative feedback is a significant price discount factor in the final auction price on the C2C Internet auction market. The results also show that potential buyers are more sensitive to negative feedback when they are considering buying inherently risky products such as used or refurbished products.