Enterprise resource planning adoption: structural equation modeling analysis of antecedents

Abstract

This study identifies the key antecedent factors for accomplishing the adoption stage of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Five potential antecedent factors of adoption were derived from the literature, including that on innovation theories, and data were obtained from a sample of 217 organizations across Australia. A structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the complex relationships between antecedents and the adoption decision. We found that there were three positive drivers of a successful outcome of the ERP adoption stage. Prior findings have shown that system quality is a key enabler for innovation adoption by individuals, and we found that system quality is also an important driver for organizational adoption of ERP. It was also indicated that organizations consider adopting ERP when the market and customer patterns are relatively stable rather than in turbulent environments.