Planning for the market?

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning is the most overarching attempt so far to control a firm's economic environment using information technology. An analysis of its functions, potential, and limitations thus requires an economic model that provides a conceptual framework for understanding the enterprise's goals, activities and environment. Marx's analysis of the processes of accumulation and circulation of capital is used here to assess ERP systems, with the conclusion that, rather than being a fad, ERPs attempt to answer certain general problems of capital accumulation that are particularly acute today. Their limitations are shown to be inherent in the capital form itself, in particular the dependence of capital on market relations in exchange.