User Resistance Research In ERP System Implementation

User resistance has always been an important reason for the failure of ERP implementation, and it has always been a hot issue in information system research. These researches can be divided in two streams: scholars like Markus have tried to analyze the influence organization power relation shift has on user behavior, and Kim and Kankanhalli explain users’ mentality dynamics mechanism when facing the new system. From their study we can see most of them deem user resistance is out of conscious calculating, which lacks considering the role formed behavior and idea from past experience played in user resistance behavior.To overcome the research gap, we adopt Bourdier’s habitus theory to explain the behavior. Agents’ habitus is internalized from their experience and social structure, which drives their behavior out of conscious and be regarded as taken-for-granted, thus as a recessive power habitus plays an important role in ERP implementation. In this paper, the author chooses case study which involves a long-time survey in a pharmaceutical factory to rejuvenate users’ implementation experience and dip the role what habitus played in their behaviors.The conclusion includes:(1) user resistance is due to unable to change habitus which means user tries to maintain his old habitus that has formed in his previous working conditions to resist the system;(2) ERP implementation is a process of habitus shift which demands the user to change form old habitus to ERP habitus. On this basis, we put forward strategies to reduce resistance behavior which can be divided in two ways:(1) promote habitus change which includes user education and organization pressure;(2) design system to comply users’ habitus. Meanwhile a system dynamic model has been put forward to simulate the process of habitus change of the case, and we got suggestions from the results:(1) the firm should do well in the initial propagandize work;(2) ERP education is positive in reducing resistance but will weaken its effect if with more times.This paper is a exploratory research of habitus effect on user resistance, and the contribution as well as innovation point are suggested as:(1) a habitus perspective research on resistance is a supplementary to study which rarely considers the influence user work experience has on resistance behavior previously;(2) illustrate the role user habitus plays in resistance from case study and construct "habitus-resistance" behavior model;(3) put forward strategies to reduce resistance, among them design system conforming user habitus is rarely mentioned and concrete operations of education and training have been suggested;(4) construct system dynamic model to study the relationship between habitus change and resistance behavior in a dynamic way. Research shortage and future improvement have also been suggested lastly in this paper.