Conceptualizing Interaction with Erp Systems Using Adaptive Structuration Theory

The new brand of Information Systems (IS) is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and while lots of studies have used functional and networking type IS to operationalize adoption (or system usage) measures, ERP systems have yet to mature in that area. Despite system usage being an important variable in IS research over the last three decades, IS researchers have in the past on many occasions, attempted and failed to capture the complex and iterative processes behind this experience and adoption of new technology. Though suited and common in studies of functional and transactional systems, this article argues that system usage; in its present form, is inadequate to represent the dynamic and iterative processes that occur between the user and more advanced technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Conceptions of system usage have been criticized for a lack of theoretical underpinning, unsystematic approaches towards operationalization of measures, and mixed results about the link between system usage and individual performance. Consequently, the authors suggest Interaction as an all encompassing dimension that extends beyond the previously popular quantitative usage measures and best accounts for the user’s experience. This paper’s objective is to contribute to knowledge: a new approach towards conceptualizing the Interaction between users and ERP systems for an IS success domain. The authors do this by leveraging Adaptive Structuration theory to introduce dimensions of structures, Interaction and impacts, and a comprehensive set of Interaction measures for operationalization.