COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY LONDON In the partnership with University of Wales Lampeter NAME

:Nirav Ashokbhai Joshi COURSE :MBA TERM 1 MODULE CODE :MBA6010-L MODULE :FRAMEWORKS
FOR RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT DETAILS :CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ACADEMIC RESEARCH PAPER
LECTURER :DR. STEPHEN SOMMERVILLE SUBMISSION DEADLINE :28thAPRIL 2010 EMAIL
ID :nirav.joshi@stu.ctlondon.ac.uk 11 Enterprise size matters: objectives and constraints of ERP
adoption” by Sanna Laukkanen, Sami Sarpola and Petri Hallikainen
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=4E0 5BBE B
DF83EEF571FEBAA39108EADD?contentType=Article&contentId=1602478 TABLE OF CONTENTS |Sr.
No. |Topic |Page No. | |1 |Title |3 | |2 |Abstract |3 | |3 |Introduction |3 | |4 |Literature Review |
4 | |5 |Critical Discussion |4 | | |and Evaluation | | |6 |Conclusion |8 | |7 |Reference list |10 | Title
Critical review of the research paper “Enterprise size matters: objectives and constraints of ERP
adoption” by Sanna Laukkanen, Sami Sarpola and Petri Hallikainen. Abstract This is critical review
paper and aim to detail review and criticise on the research paper specified in the title. In the
existing research paper researcher has taken as size of the organisation as independent variable and
categorise the organisations in three group as small, medium and large size of organisations and
gathering the data to identify the effect of organisation’s size on constrain and objective of the
company at the time of adoption. This review paper will analyse that research paper on other
research in ERP adoption and try to suggest some design modification on research design used by
existing research paper. Introduction Khaled Al-Fawaz(2008) has given simple definition of the ERP
“In its basic definition, ERP is an enterprise-wide information system that integrates and controls all
the business processes in the entire organization” and he also included the definition given by Nah
and Lau (2001) ERP is “a packaged business software system that enables a company to manage the
efficient and effective use of resources (materials, human resources, finance, etc.) by providing a
total, integrated solution for the organization’s information-processing needs”. Growth and
availability in technology, competition for business in hi-tech world provides rooms and new market
for ERP. Information system becomes unavoidable part of the organisation from last two decade.
ERP provides integration within departments, optimisation and planning of the resources, e-
Intelligence to organisations. This research paper is useful for the Companies who develop ERP as
Product or customisation ERP solution for the company. Solution developers or product developer
can think about filling the gaps which are occurred because of constrain and take close look of the
objectives when they are approaching the organisation of different size organisation. Researcher has
also taken the detail criteria depend upon the size of the company like resource, time runs skilled
involvement all this things vary by size of the organisation. Companies who want to develop their
information system can also consider this paper as most general adaptation constrain and can think
about to overcome by this too. We are going to review this paper from two angles like research
design and ERP subject knowledge. In the literature review we describe about the similar research
done by the other researcher on same topic and how they gave the direction in evaluation of the
chosen paper. We are also going to discuss about the chosen paper and its hypothesis and research
questions in literature review section. Main body will analyse the research paper on the research
design point of view and how other reviewed literature are taken and gives the evidence that to
modifications in the research design. We are going to discuss about the hypothesis, sample size,
method data collection and analysis. If we start with hypothesis, this reviews paper recommend
taking more variable and making research design accordingly. (Laukkanen, S. 2007) Literature
Review My chosen research paper has done resorting of the organisation in terms of its size to
research about constrains and objectives while adoption of the ERP system by organisations. In
chosen research paper companies are divided in three categories as small, medium and large size
organisation rather the two categories generally taken by other researches as SMEs and large
organisation. Researcher has concluded that budget and schedule overrun is problem for all size of
the company and again if we consider constrains then resource poverty and skills and user
compatibility is problem with small enterprise and complexity and changes imposed after the ERP
are the problems for medium and large size of the companies. Medium and large size company is
different in terms of scope of integration. Small companies is less concern about inter-organisation
information system and e-commerce for medium and large size companies are more focus on those
two points. At consideration of the objective medium size and large size organisation is business
development by ERP and strategic planning and in small organisation problem with lack of vision.
(Laukkanen, S. 2007) Sedera, D. and her team (2003) did the research on the ERP implementation
success dependent on the size of the organisation. Chosen research paper focused on constrains and
he has taken dough about the successful implementation is taken as constrain in adoption. Paper by
Darshana and team also study about the five main construct like system quality, Information quality,
satisfaction, individual impact, organisational impact and forty five (45) sub-constructs and
concluded that success ratio is high in large organisation. research by Sedera, D. and her team (2003)
has taken the 366 sample size to and collected the information by personal interview so comparing
the my chosen paper major difference with sample size is exist so in argument I am going to argue
on that point. Research done by Yvonne M (2003) focuses on how the culture of the different
country affects the adoption of the ERP system. In my chosen research paper researcher has not
taken effect of national culture in adoption of the ERP and Yvonne M (2003) clearly identified the
national culture greatly influence the adoption of the technology like ERP. If we observe the other
research done by Jayantha (ND) he also focus on the ERP adoption in the developing country like
Asian country. The he did argue on the cost affordability between western country like European
countries and USA and Asian country because of the wealth. Lots of evidences force the research to
take country culture to take as argument with any other variable. And this paper can give us clue for
the further research too. That if the cheap ERP as product is offered with limited featured than can it
be a good market? Buonanno (2005) and his team did the research considering much more factor
then covered in the current chosen paper and these factors I have taken in the arguments in main
body. Research by Buonanno (2005) and his team disagree with complexity as factor of adoption and
they had taken size of the company as major impact on adoption of ERP. They also surprisingly
disagree with financial as constrain in small and medium scan industry and is major constrain for
adoption of the ERP. Critical discussion and evaluation Independent variables considered by
researchers are size of the company and dependent variables are constrains and objectives while
adoption of the ERP system. Addressing the 1st research question, factors below are taken affecting
as constrain of the adoption of ERP are taken as cause or independent variable as size of the
company. For narrowing the picture, sub constructs of company size are (1) schedule overruns (2)
budget overruns (3) users’ IT competence as a risk factor (4) changes imposed by the ERP (5)
Adequacy of information in ERP system selection (6) Adequacy of participation from different
organizational functions in ERP system selection. (Laukkanen, S. 2007) Addressing the 2nd research
question, factors below are taken affecting as objective of the adoption of ERP are taken as cause or
independent variable as size of the company. For narrowing the picture, sub constructs of company
size are (1) improvements in operational efficiency (2) cost reductions (3) improvements in
competitive position (4) new ways of conducting business (5) development of electronic (6)
commerce capabilities. (Laukkanen, S. 2007) Sounder (2000) suggested that strength and quality of
hypothesis can be increased by considering mutual effect of multiple independent variables. G.
Buonanno (2005) and his team has taken Company size (micro, small, medium, large), The market
area (local, regional, national, international), membership an industrial group, presence of branch
offices, level of diversification, The degree of functional extension as adoptions of ERP. Research
conduct by Yvonne (2003) and stated that national culture can make significant effect on adoption of
the ERP. Previous researches gave evidence that lots of factors affect the adoption of ERP so,
researcher could take more variables to construct that strong hypothesis, so it could be the better
idea if searcher taken and more variables and would take regression effect of the variables. Forty
four(44) interviews were taken by researcher for gathering data. For the covering vast subject and
for more precise result sampling size could be large and in the research paper. Researcher has taken
the sample from variety of industries like retail, manufacturing, logistic, etc. G. Buonanno(2005) and
his team suggest other variable for category like national culture. Jayantha R strongly concluded that
adoption of ERP system depend on country culture because of difference of wealth between
developing Asian country and developed western country .So sample size is design according to
cover the these different variety of population. According to requirement of covering the subject if
large size of the sample was taken then sample size influence research design to change the data
collection method. Sedera, D. (2003) and her team have taken 310 interviews to cover the same
subject so it is subject of discussion that how thw sample size is difference. It is difficult to take large
no of interview and data collection method could be self completion questionnaires. Sampling
method taken by researcher classification according to Saunder (2000) is Non-probability category
and purposive or judgement sampling. Running the company on computer program is very big
decision for company and people of all categories from top to bottom level will involve in
implementation to operation of the ERP. So highly knowledgeable and domain expertise required to
present his view. So here researcher has taken manager those represent company’s IT function. So
sample selection is very good decision. Data collection method used by researcher is structure
interview with Some Questions with open ended questions and other with Likert scale. If we analyse
the method of data collection Bryman(2003) suggested multiple interview to get quality answer and
he suggested open ended questions’ answer are difficult to record in within systematic answer and
more difficult to analyse that data. In the interview technique if we go for the only one interview
then it is difficult to get precise answer. And if you go for multiple interviews then you have
compromise with sample size to cover the tasks in estimated time. Researcher had not specified
about the questionnaire preparation and structure of the questionnaire. Type of the questions and
structure can affect the quality of answer. In next few paragraphs we are going to discuss on analysis
of the data. Researcher had taken qualitative and quantitative method for data collection and
analysis part. Objectives of adoption ERP is examined by the open ended questions and were
analysed by open coding approach suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1990). Researcher had
comparing and contradicting the objectives in all three type of organisation so it is better for the
analysis by open coding technique. John V suggested to analysing the qualitative data and our
objective is related to examining the similarity differences open coding method is best fit for the
research design(John V. 1998). Limitation with this method is that open coding is applied as method
but it is used like art and it is endless in the nature after applying to all passages of the text and than
you could further elaborate to all categories (Flicks U. PP-317-318). Except objective of the adoption
other all questions are design in the form of Likert scale and get quantitative data and then analyse
this data by one way analysis of the variance (ANOVA) F-test has been chosen. Disadvantages with
using ANOVA are as “1. All population means from each data group must be (roughly) equal.2. All
variances from each data group must be (roughly) equal” (www.mathforum.org 2005). If we
consider large data to process then better option is to use software like SPSS. If we would change
according to requirement of subject then what other impact can be occurred on the research
design . Considering the Cochran’s (1977) for finite population correlation with +-5% of the margin of
error at 95% of confidential level and taking table given by Erica (2006, pp 123) suggest that sample
size should be larger then it is taken by researcher. Most of research authors suggest that bigger the
sample size would be confidence about the result. As we discussed sample size can be increase for
more precise result the alternative method can be the self complete questionnaires. According to
Bryman (2003,pp 241-243) self completion questionnaires is cheaper, quicker, interviewer
variability, absent of interviewer effect and disadvantages from self completion questionnaires are
cannot prompt, cannot probe, cannot ask many question , difficulty of asking other kind of question,
greater risk of missing data, lower response rate, difficult to get additional detail. Bryman (2003,pp
244-245) also suggest other check- list to consider overcoming the disadvantages of the self
completion questionnaires and those are good covering letter, shorter questionnaire, regular follow-
up, etc. Conclusion and recommendation Understanding the scope of the subject we can conclude
that researcher could expand his scope of research by considering the more variable those can affect
on constrain and objectives of the adoption and those variables are industry type, national culture. If
we consider more variable than sample size must be large to cover all clustered representatives as
samples. Self completion questionnaire can be used to cover those samples. We can also consider
the some of the point suggested by book to overcome the disadvantages associated by the
individual interview. Jayantha R strongly concluded that adoption of ERP system depend on country
culture because of difference of wealth between developing Asian country and developed western
country. Jayantha R conclude that “Our basic argument is that the business practices embedded in
western-based ERP software are likely to reflect US and European business and national cultures,
and that when such systems are implemented in developing countries in Asia, problems may be
experienced due to mismatch between cultural assumptions and practices embedded in the
software and those in the client organizations.” In India Tally was an accounting package only and it
intruded a Tally.ERP 9 in 2008 at very cheap price. “….With over 90% (estimated) businesses in India
using Tally.ERP 9 (and earlier versions)……”
(http://www.tallysolutions.com/website/html/index.html) So resource poverty and cultural
difference behave as constrain in adoption of ERP. If ERP vendors target SMEs as market and offer
the ERP with limited essential features with less customisation and at very cheap price then will
SMEs accept the and convince to adopt such ERP is further topic of research. References 1.
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