Enterprise resource planning: identifying relationships among critical success factors

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish that there are causal relationships among critical success factors (CSFs) associated with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) project. The authors prove that: H1 – Vendor (VN) is positively related to Enterprise System Selection Process (ES). H1a – Enterprise System Selection process (ES) mediates the relationship between vendor (VN) and Success (SS). H2 – Project Management (PM) is positively related to Implementation Strategy (IS). H2a – Implementation Strategy (IS) mediates the relationship between Project Management (PM) and Success (SS). H3 – Support of Top Management (TM) is positively related to Project Team Competence (PT). H3a – Project Team Competence (PT) mediates the relationship between Support of Top Management (TM) and Success (SS). Design/methodology/approach – To test the proposed hypotheses, the authors conducted a survey using a questionnaire. The research questionnaire was floated to 450 respondents; the authors received 168 responses. The authors had to discard 62 responses as their organization had greater than 250 employee and did not qualify to be an Indian SME. The authors were left with 106 responses. The respondents were managers (5.6 percent), consultants (39.6 percent), engineers (50 percent) and the remaining (4.8 percent) did not specify their job. The authors then do regression analysis and path analysis including all other required analysis. Findings – The authors found that all hypotheses are supported. The management may use these findings to understand relationships among CSFs and use this knowledge to mitigate and manage CSFs. Originality/value – There are no systematic studies to study relationships among CSFs. The work establishes relationships among CSFs through data collected from organizations that have implemented ERP.