ERP Implementation and Firm Performance: How the Motivation to Adopt explains Performance Variation

Abstract

This thesis encompasses an empirical study on the relation between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and organizational financial performance. Inspiration for this study is grounded in the ambiguous nature of the results on contemporary research in this domain. Better understanding the factors affecting the direction and extent of the impact which an ERP system has on the performance of the firm is desired. Over the last decades, numerous studies have investigated the impact of ERP on organizational financial performance and those studies (Poston & Grabski, 2001; Chapman & Kihn, 2009) believe a positive relation between those variables exists but when and how those effects occur is still an unexplored area of research. This research includes the reason to adopt as a moderating factor in investigating the relation between ERP and financial performance. The reason to adopt seems to be a relevant variable in explaining the variance in firm performance. A recommendation on future research includes more focus on how the implementation of ERP enables companies to improve their financial performance instead of only focussing on the direct relation between ERP and financial benefits as it is believed that real benefits stem from add-on modules and digitization in which the core ERP only has an enabling function.