Investigating enterprise systems adoption: uncertainty avoidance,intrinsic motivation,and the technology acceptance model

Enterprise systems are gaining interest from both practitioners and researchers because of their potential linkages to organizational and individual user's productivity. Information systems (IS) researchers have been investigating the implementation and adoption issues of enterprise systems based on the organizational IS management perspectives. However, there are few papers that investigate enterprise systems management and implementation issues based on the informal control mechanisms, although the enterprise systems are control tools in the organization. Specifically, this paper applies Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) adoption and implementation to the informal controls, such as cultural control and self-control, which can be viewed as a tacit perspective in knowledge management. Uncertainty avoidance and perceived enjoyment are used as informal controls in the ERP implementation in this paper, and are linked to the technology acceptance variables to investigate the relationships among them. Sociotechnical design, organizational control mechanism, knowledge management, and individual motivation are reviewed to support this potential linkage in the model. Field data via the online survey of ERP systems user group (n=101) are analyzed with partial least squares and supported our hypotheses. Uncertainty avoidance cultural control and intrinsic motivation as self-control are the important antecedents of ERP systems adoption. Furthermore, the result helps the systems manager understand that informal controls should be applied to the ERP systems implementation to enhance tacit and social aspects of IS management.     

Delineating the effects of general and system-specific computer self-efficacy beliefs on IS acceptance

This paper discusses extensions to previous research on computer self-efficacy (CSE) and systems acceptance by examining the impact of multilevel CSE on IS acceptance. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), we examined the effects of general and system-specific CSE on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intention to use a system. The results of a field experiment indicated that system-specific CSE represented a stronger predictor of perceived usefulness and behavioral intention than general CSE. In contrast, general CSE had a stronger effect on perceived ease of use. The research and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The impact of psychological climate on employees’ innovative use of information systems: The moderating role of goal orientation

The objectives of this study are to investigate climates that could facilitate innovative use of information systems (IS), and to examine how psychological climate and individual goal orientation interact to promote employees’ innovative IS use. A total of 174 questionnaires were collected from enterprise resource planning (ERP) users from nine firms in China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. The empirical results suggest that (1) psychological climates (psychological autonomy climate and psychological innovation climate) are positively associated with IS users’ innovative use, (2) avoidance orientation weakens the relationship between psychological autonomy climate and innovative use, (3) learning orientation weakens the relationship between psychological innovation climate and innovative use, and (4) learning orientation strengthens the relationship between psychological autonomy climate and innovative use. This study contributes to IS literature by identifying psychological climate as a critical antecedent of innovative use. The findings also fulfil an identified need for more empirical studies of the combined effect of individual and environmental factors on employees’ innovative behaviour in the workplace, especially in the context of IS innovation.     

The relation of interface usability characteristics,perceived usefulness,and perceived ease of use to end-user satisfaction with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems

Over the past few years, firms around the world have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to have a standardized information system (IS) in their respective organizations and to reengineer their business processes. While millions of dollars have been spent on implementing ERP systems, previous research indicates that potential users may still not use them. This study, based on data from 51 end-users in 24 companies examines various usability factors affecting end-user satisfaction with ERP systems. The results indicate that both perceived usefulness and learnability are determinants of end-user satisfaction with ERP systems. In addition perceived ease of use and system capability affect perceived usefulness, while user guidance influences both perceived usefulness and learnability. Implications of these findings are discussed and further research opportunities described.     

Interactive and diagnostic uses of management control systems in IS projects: Antecedents and their impact on performance

We attempted to determine how formal management control systems (MCS) are used by project managers in IS development (ISD) contexts. This involved investigating the antecedents of two types of project MCS use (interactive and diagnostic), and their direct and moderated impact on project performance. PLS analysis of data collected in a survey of 93 projects indicated that project managers’ level of discretion positively affected their level of interactive use of project MCS but did not influence their diagnostic use. Our findings also showed that interactive use of MCS enhanced performance when task uncertainty (task novelty and complexity) of an ISD was high, but worsened it when task uncertainty was low. Finally, diagnostic use of MCS apparently increased project performance when an ISD task uncertainty was low, but did not reduce it when task uncertainty was high. Overall, these results were stable across different size projects.     

The influence of national culture on the performance expectancy of e-parliament adoption

E-parliament has gone global but the national culture may affect the adoption behaviour of legislators and citizens to it. Technology adoption literature is limited on the influence of national culture on e-parliament adoption and use. The study assessed the factors of national culture and their influence on adoption of e-parliament by legislators and citizens in Nigeria. The study investigated the correlations between national culture and the attribute of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, performance expectancy in regard to e-parliament adoption. The methods of data collection included a survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews conducted on 346 federal legislators in Nigeria and 5 members of the public, respectively. The results showed that the dimensions of national culture such as masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and Confucian dynamics (‘face saving’) had moderate effects on the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and intention to adopt e-parliaments by legislators and members of the public in Nigeria. The other dimensions of culture and cultural contexts such as individualism, power distance, cultural diversity, multiculturality, power (in the context of culture), hermeneutics and dialogue had no significant effect on performance expectancy of e-parliament adoption in the context of Nigeria.     

Cultural values and Facebook use among Palestinian youth in Israel

Culture is a set of values that influences attitudes and social behavior. Despite the role of culture in shaping attitudes and motivations, most of the extensive research literature on the determinants and patterns of social media use has focused on psychological and social factors. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the role of cultural values in perceptions of privacy, trust and motivations for using Facebook among young Palestinians in Israel. We relied on Hall’s concept of high and low communication contexts and three of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Data from a survey of Arab high school students (N = 567) established that variations in the adoption of cultural values are associated with the motivation for using Facebook through their effect on trust and on privacy concerns. We discuss the findings and their implications.     

The influence of individual espoused cultural values on self-directed use of technology for language learning beyond the classroom

Students' use of technology for learning beyond the classroom is critical to maximizing the educational potential of technology, and understanding factors that affect learners' adoption of technology is critical. This study examined the influence of individual espoused cultural values on learners' voluntary technology adoption in informal learning contexts. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of the direct and moderating effects of espoused cultural values on learners' self-directed use of technology for learning beyond the classroom, based on the survey responses of 661 foreign language learners from three countries/regions. The study found strong direct effects but weak moderating effects of cultural values. It further found that long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance were two individual-level cultural value orientations that played important roles in the voluntary adoption of technology for self-directed learning beyond the classroom.     

A survey study of the current IS usage in the Chinese manufacturing industry

The status of information systems (IS) usage is an important measure of the level of IS adoption. This paper presents the results of a study investigating the current usage of IS and the attitudes toward their use in the Chinese manufacturing industry. Using the survey results obtained from a sample of 78 firms, we provide findings in the current status of IS applications, orientation of IS applications, human factors, and future IS plans. This effort also demonstrates an underlying relationship between critical IS factors (especially the human factors) and business performance in the Chinese environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of IS issues and their implications for practitioners.     

Understanding post‐adoption IS usage stages: an empirical assessment of self‐service information systems

Organisations have invested in self‐service information systems (IS) to provide a direct interface for service delivery. Enriching the usage of these systems can provide organisations with immense benefits. However, limited research has been directed towards understanding post‐adoption IS usage behaviour in general and specifically in the context of self‐service IS. This study proposes post‐adoption IS usage behaviour as a broader concept constituting feature level usage of IS, integration of IS in the work system and exploration of new uses of IS. We evaluate how the new conceptualisation can be used to classify users at different stages of self‐service IS usage. Further, we examine user perceptions that differentiate among the users situated at different self‐service IS usage stages. Data were collected in the context of a self‐service Web‐based IS to validate the post‐adoption IS usage constructs and to examine the proposed thesis. The newly developed conceptual structure and measures for post‐adoption IS usage behaviour exhibit strong psychometric properties. The analysis shows three distinct post‐adoption IS usage stages and highlights that usefulness, user‐initiated learning, ease of use, satisfaction and voluntariness of use differentiate users at the different stages of post‐adoption IS usage. The results show that these variables aggregate into value confirmation and learning orientation as two higher‐level concepts. Further, we evaluate the predictive efficacy of the research model in classifying users into different post‐adoption self‐service IS usage stages. Implications are drawn for future research.     

The impact of legitimacy-based motives on IS adoption success: An institutional theory perspective

Firms frequently adopt new information systems (IS). To better understand IS adoption, research has been focused on motives for an IS adoption. In this study, three legitimacy-based motives (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressure) are examined for their impact on two success determinants (i.e., project management approach and team competence) and the subsequent impact of the success determinants on IS adoption success. In a quantitative study of Australian firms, we found that coercive pressure and normative pressure influence the project management approach, whereas mimetic pressure influences team competence. Both the project management approach and team competence in turn influence IS adoption success.     

The dark side of elderly acceptance of preventive mobile health services in China

Mobile health services have become increasingly important for people, especially for the elderly. Despite the potential benefits, there are challenges and barriers for the elderly in adopting mobile health services. Drawing upon the dual factor model, we investigate the enablers and the inhibitors of the elderly mobile health service adoption behaviour. We also address two typical characteristics of elderly users—technology anxiety and dispositional resistance to change—to understand the antecedents of the enablers and the inhibitors. The hypothesized model is empirically tested using data collected from a field survey of 204 customers of a large elderly service providing company in China. The key findings include: (1) resistance to change influences perceived usefulness but does not influence perceived ease of use and adoption intention; (2) technology anxiety is negatively associated with perceived ease of use but positively associated with resistance to change; (3) dispositional resistance to change is negatively associated with perceived ease of use but positively associated with resistance to change. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The effect of computer self-efficacy on enterprise resource planning usage

Global competition has impelled numerous organisations to employ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, although quite frequently without success. Studies have demonstrated that a major factor for failure is employee resistance in organisations using these systems. Exactly the factors that facilitate ERP adoption among users have seldom been identified. This study examines the usage behaviour of a sample of users of the new technology of ERP system using a technology acceptance model (TAM). Furthermore, this paper incorporates an additional behavioural construct, computer self-efficacy (CSE), to improve the predictive value of the original TAM model, named revised TAM. Additionally, the structural equation model (SEM) is used to verify the causal relationships between variables. Analytical results confirm that not only is the TAM appropriate for explaining the use of ERP, but that incorporating CSE enhances the power of the model.     

The effect of computer self-efficacy on enterprise resource planning usage

Global competition has impelled numerous organisations to employ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, although quite frequently without success. Studies have demonstrated that a major factor for failure is employee resistance in organisations using these systems. Exactly the factors that facilitate ERP adoption among users have seldom been identified. This study examines the usage behaviour of a sample of users of the new technology of ERP system using a technology acceptance model (TAM). Furthermore, this paper incorporates an additional behavioural construct, computer self-efficacy (CSE), to improve the predictive value of the original TAM model, named revised TAM. Additionally, the structural equation model (SEM) is used to verify the causal relationships between variables. Analytical results confirm that not only is the TAM appropriate for explaining the use of ERP, but that incorporating CSE enhances the power of the model.     

Understanding information proactiveness and the content management system adoption in pre-implementation stage

The overall technology acceptance literature does not pay sufficient attention to the issue of the mandated use of systems as the traditional acceptance models (e.g. TAM) were originally built, tested, and validated by being applied to technologies that were mainly voluntary in nature, that is, the users had the choice of whether to use or not use the technology. Few have studied end users' proactive motivation to use information and attitude toward newly implemented technologies within organizational contexts, before end-users start using the technology or pre-implementation stage. This research proposes that information proactiveness has influences on the content management systems adoption beliefs such as perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The proposed model was empirically tested using the data collected from content management systems end-users. As theorized, information proactiveness was found to be a significant determinant of system users' perceived ease of use but not perceived usefulness in pre-implementation stage. Furthermore, perceived behavioral control was found to be a strong determinant of systems users' attitude. The study findings provide important insights on enhancing system users' adoption behavior in pre-implementation stage.     

Senior managers’ perception on green information systems (IS) adoption and environmental performance: Results from a field survey

Based on a Belief-Action-Outcome framework, we produced a model that shows senior managers’ perception of both the antecedents to and the consequences of Green IS adoption by a firm. This conceptual model and its associated hypotheses were empirically tested using a dataset generated from a survey of 405 organizations. The results suggest that coercive pressure influences the attitude toward Green IS adoption while mimetic pressure does not. In addition, we found that there was a significant relationship between Green IS adoption, attitude, and consideration of future consequences. Finally, we found that only long term Green IS adoption was positively related to environmental performance.     

Perceived usefulness,user involvement and behavioral intention: an empirical study of ERP implementation

Many firms have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the past few years. The expensive nature of these systems requires that effective usage of these systems be attained in order for an organization to derive the expected benefits from the technology. This study looks at the influence that perceived usefulness, user involvement, argument for change, prior usage and ease of use have on the behavioral intention to use an ERP system. A mail survey was used to collect data in an organization that was implementing an ERP system. A total of 571 responses were obtained. The results indicate that users perception of the perceived usefulness, ease of use of the technology, and the users’ level of intrinsic involvement all affect their intention to use the technology. The results seem to suggest that managerial efforts aimed at increasing the users’ perceptions of the usefulness and personal relevance of the technology will contribute to implementation success, where success is defined as effectual usage of the technology. The paper ends with possible extensions to this study.     

The impact of uncertainty avoidance, social norms and innovativeness on trust and ease of use in electronic customer relationship management

Social and individual factors and their relationships to trust in electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) are important topics for e-commerce designers and information systems researchers. In spite of several previous studies of online trust and consumer behavior, none has adequately examined the influences of social and individual factors on online trust in eCRM. In this paper, the relationships among uncertainty avoidance, social norms, personal innovativeness in IT, and multidimensions of online trust (integrity, benevolence, and ability) as well as perceived ease of use (PEOU) are tested, based on a PLS analysis with 209 student samples. Social norms influence all three dimensions of online trust, while uncertainty avoidance affects only the benevolence and ability dimensions. Personal innovativeness in IT affects PEOU, and PEOU influences all three dimensions of online trust. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings beneficial to our understanding of customer relationships in the electronic marketplace are discussed in the paper.     

Comparing the relative importance of evaluation criteria in proprietary and open‐source enterprise application software selection – a conjoint study of ERP and Office systems

Until recently, organizations willing to acquire application systems have had no choice but to adopt proprietary software. With the advent of open‐source software (OSS), a new model for developing and distributing software has entered the stage. OSS has evolved from a generally horizontal infrastructure towards more highly visible applications in vertical domains, giving information systems (IS) managers more degrees of freedom in their selection of enterprise application software (EAS). Although a large body of research exists on the relative importance of evaluation criteria for proprietary EAS, the role of OSS in the EAS evaluation process has received little attention so far. To address this research gap, this study represents the first empirical investigation to compare the relative importance of evaluation criteria in proprietary and open‐source EAS selection. Through an online survey, we evaluated the responses of IS managers of 358 organizations to a conjoint study spawning 8592 trade‐off pair comparisons and 3580 purchase evaluations on proprietary and open‐source enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Office software packages. The results show that the relative importance of evaluation criteria significantly varies between proprietary and open‐source ERP systems. Implementation factors such as ease of implementation and support are much more crucial in the evaluation of open‐source than of proprietary ERP systems, which is generally due to IS managers' risk mitigation behaviour. Interestingly, there are no major differences in the ranking of evaluation criteria between proprietary and open‐source Office systems. We conclude our paper with a detailed discussion of our findings and their implications for researchers, companies, EAS vendors and open‐source communities.     

The future of inter-organisational system linkages: findings of an international Delphi study

To perform effectively in markets that are becoming increasingly turbulent and volatile, organisations should form information system linkages with their business partners. This study seeks to produce a ‘vision’ for the future of such linkages. A number of recent developments in information systems and technology (IS/IT) appear to promise the ability to make improvements in this domain. These are electronic hubs, web services, widespread adoption of common enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and enterprise portals. This study, which is carried out by means of the Delphi technique, explores the expected future role and use of these information systems. The expert participants in the study believe that the focus of enterprise systems is shifting from an internal to an external orientation. They suggest that ERP systems may be reaching a structural limit concerning their capabilities and adjunct technologies will be required to integrate multiple inter-organisational operations. The participants expect that the three other systems and technologies considered can provide those necessary adjunct technologies, either used singly, or more likely in combination. Finally, we find that the transition to a greater external orientation is expected to include an extension in the types of organisations that will be integrated electronically into networks.