International Examples Of Large-Scale Systems - Theory And Practice I:Implementing ERP Systems in China

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of R/3 users in China which was conducted in Spring 2000. The broad purpose of the study is to identify crucial implementation process and context variables which warrant closer attention in the study of IT-enabled organizational change. As companies display a great variety of ownership structures in China (including state-owned, foreign-invested, and privately-held firms), the role of ownership can be studied in relatively greater depth there than elsewhere. While it turns out that ownership is strongly associated with implementation process characteristics, the association of ownership structures with implementation results is much less pronounced. It was found that project governance, specifically the role and decision making style of the steering committee, can be associated with a broad set of outcome variables after controlling for ownership and other important context factors.