A Study Of Influence Factors On ERP Users' Assimilation Level In Company A

To enable efficient business operation and management, company A has implemented the ERP system with the establishment of the company in 2003. However, despite ten years of continuous use, the level of ERP application has been bottlenecked in company A. In recent years, there are no any function improvements in the use of the ERP system. Company A urgently needs to improve the level of ERP application to achieve more supports from the ERP system for day-to-day management and decision making. In order to resolve this problem, this study examined the assimilation levels of ERP users in company, and analyzed the influential factors of ERP users' assimilation level. The purpose of this study is to provide some practical suggestions for deepening the use of the ERP system in company A.The issue of deepening the use of ERP system in practice is consistent with ERP assimilation theory in academia. The main theoretical framework of this study is individual level ERP assimilation theory. First, this study evaluated the overall pratical application of the ERP system in company A. Based on the analysis, the study then conducted depth interviews with ERP users of company A and identified five key influential factors on individual level ERP assimilation, including direct supervisor, job responsibilities, intrinsic motivation, perceived usefulness and absorptive capacity. Moreover, this study used social network analysis technique as a primairy statistical tool to map the advice network of ERP users in company A, described the overall performance of ERP users' assimilation graphically, and used cluster analysis to group ERP users into three categories based on the analysis result of degree centrality of each ERP user in the advice network, implying that the three categories of ERP users have different assimilation levels. At last, this study provides a series of suggestions and measures to improve the assimilation level of ERP users.The results of this study will provide theoretical support and practical guidelines for the continuous improvement of the ERP system in company A.