Post-Implementation Improvement of ERP System Usage in SMEs: An Empirical Study of E-Commerce Retail Companies in Sweden
2018 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesisAlternative title
Förbättring av affärssystemsanvändning för små- och mellanstora företag : En empirisk fallstudie om e-handelsföretag i Sverige (Swedish)
Abstract [en]
Background: ERP systems were perceived as the most significant invention for corporations during the rise of information technology in 1990s (Davenport, 1998). Today ERP systems are a multibillion dollar business and used by both LEs and SMEs. Using an ERP system is a continuous project and it is important to constantly look for misalignments in the system and the usage in accordance to the organizational structure also during post-implementation phase (Peng & Nunes, 2017).
Problem: Despite the abundance of studies regarding the implementation of ERP systems there is a shortage of studies about the post-implementation phase, where existing post-implementation studies are rather fragmented around a large set of issues (Huang & Yasuda, 2016; Peng & Nunes, 2017). Furthermore, the studies about ERP usage during post-implementation tend to focus on user perspective or evaluation of system or organizational performance (Huang & Yasuda, 2016).
Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how SMEs improve the usage of ERP systems during the post-implementation phase.
Method: To fulfill the purpose of this study, the empirical data was collected through a multiple case study of three cases with SMEs of e-commerce retailer companies in Sweden. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with top management of the three SMEs in order to get understanding of underlying methods and reasons for the system usage improvement
Conclusion: Findings of this study show that SMEs improve their system usage through enhancing knowledge-sharing and organizational learning as well as through unification of the procedures that is achieved through external support and knowledge-sharing.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. , p. 68
Keywords [en]
ERP, ERP system, Post-implementation, ERP usage, usage, Improvement, ERP improvement, SMEs
Keywords [sv]
Affärssystem, affärssystemsanvändning, efter implementation, förbättring, affärssystemsförbättring, små- och mellanstora företag, efterimplementation
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-39869ISRN: JU-IHH-FÖA-1-20180713OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-39869DiVA, id: diva2:1214012
Subject / course
JIBS, Business Administration
Supervisors
Examiners
2018-07-022018-06-052025-10-13Bibliographically approved