CEO Interests and Concerns in Second Wave ERP

This paper is the product of a study of what top management find interesting and what is of concern to them in relation to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the second wave of ERP. Very little empirical research exists on the subject of the interests and concerns of CEOs in relation to a company’s ERP System. However research into information system literature indicates that CEOs are valued as key players in the management of IT to secure that the IT strategy is aligned with the business strategy. Based on the fact that very little prior research exists on the CEOs’ interests and concerns in relation to the ERP system in the second wave, we employed an interpretive explorative case study with a grounded approach carried out through open interviews with CEOs. The research was conducted in three mid-size Danish production companies all of which have an ERP system. The contribution of this paper is five propositions that represent the core of what top management interests and concerns are in relation to the ERP systems. As our methodology also reflects, this case study is not representative and can therefore not be generalised. Rather, it is a first insight into the field and it can be used for reflection and/or tested in future research. The five propositions are: establishing a decision structure, ensuring that the IT strategy is aligned with the business strategy, identifying the impact that an ERP system has on the organisation, establishing ERP target measures and identifying innovative possibilities in ERP. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings of the case study, the implications for practice and research and the possibilities for future research.