Exploring antecedents of organisational adoption of ERP and their effect on performance of firms

The research aims to address the existing theoretical gap in knowledge on antecedents to organisational adoption stage of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) innovation process, and their relationship to performance of the firms. The predominant focus on investigating the implementation stage and its related issues has resulted in relatively limited understanding of the other stages of ERP innovation process. Additionally, little is known on how important critical success factors (CSFs) are to performance improvements of the firms. Grounded in innovation diffusion & IS Success theories, this study attempts to identify the antecedents critical to the success of the adoption stage of ERP innovation process and then examine their effect on organisational performance . Employing a mixed method research design for data collection and Structural Equation Modelling for analysis, the study empirically test a research model in order to develop an integrated, holistic framework for success of ERP innovation process. This research expects to contribute to the development of theory on innovation process by testing new antecedents to ERP adoption stage context as well as enhancing the understanding of CSFs’ role. The study will also provide recommendations for both the potential adopters and the vendors on successful uptake of ERP system.