Spotting the Critical Success Factors of Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation in the Context of Public Higher Education Sector

Abstract

The failure of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation in higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide is much higher than other sectors, such as banking or manufacturing, yet limited research has been conducted on this field. To date, previous literature has identified some critical success factors (CSFs) mostly either in the domain of information system (IS) or in the industrial context. Hence, this article identifies and categorises CSFs of ERP implementation in HEIs from multiple aspects. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with technicians and managers from three Public Jordanian HEIs. The main finding of this study is the identification and characterization of three new sector- and context-specific CSFs. This research contributes to identifying new CSFs with evidence of successful implementation of ERP systems in the public higher education sector, which has not been fully investigated in any documented literature in the sector. The research also brings out some insights for the need for sustainable ERP in the sector during crisis time.