Enterprise resource planning: ERP adoption by European midsize companies

Abstract

T he survey was performed using a prestructured questionnaire that covered questions about ERP adoption decisions, general company policies concerning IT, and investment planning. Because various European countries were included in the survey, the questionnaire was translated into local languages by translation agencies. Subsequently, telephone interviews were performed with IT managers and financial managers responsible for IT decisions. The interviews were carried out by professional call centers. In total, a substantial sample of 2,647 companies were interviewed from 10 European countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, and the U.K.) in six industry sectors (discrete and automotive industry, project industry, electronics industry, process industry, food and beverage industry, and wholesale industry). The countries and industries were selected in cooperation with the sponsor of the research. For each country/industry combination an average 45 companies were interviewed. They were randomly selected from local industry databases. This procedure ensures that for each country the total sample size exceeds N=200, and for each industry the sample size is over N=300.