Social and Cultural Issues in Institutionalisation of ERP Systems

ERP systems are highly integrated and complex systems. These systems have become a core technology in many businesses since the past two decades; however, the implemented systems do not always bring about the planned results and still many ERP implementations fails to achieve the desired benefits. This is mainly because of the way these organisations have implemented ERP and the way this technology has been institutionalised within the organisations. ERP institutionalisation, however, occurs when its usage becomes stable, routinized and embedded within the organisation’s work processes and value chain activities. Many research has been studied the success/ failure factors associated with ERP implementation which is valuable for advanced understanding of ERP implementation success, however, alone it is not sufficient for explaining social and cultural issues in institutionalisation of ERP systems. This research, thus, aims to fill this gap by offering a preliminary framework which studies the socio-cultural drivers influencing various stages of assimilation process within organisations. Towards the next stage of this research, the authors will engage different Australian organisations who use ERP systems in their organisations to investigate socio-cultural aspects which managers should consider through initiation, adoption and routinization of ERP usage. The refined version of this framework, obtained after qualitative analysis of gathered data, may be mastered as a decision making tool by business manager to guide the organisation through various stages of ERP assimilation and institutionalisation.