An investigation of the relationships between organizational factors, business process improvement, and ERP success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical investigation into the relationships between the selected organizational variables, business process improvement (BPI) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) success. Design/methodology/approach – It is based on a sample of 96 firms operating in an Asian (Hong Kong) setting. Non‐parametric statistical tests are conducted on the sample. Findings – It has found that the extent of BPI is positively related to ERP success, and senior management support of BPI (MSB), and senior management support of IT (MSI) and CEO‐IT distance are negatively related. However, it has also found that there exist no statistically significant relationships between approaches to business process changes and BPI, between MSI and ERP success, and between CEO‐IT distance and MSB. It has also yielded divergent findings for the impacts of CEO‐IT distance on the levels of senior MSI and MSB for the sub‐samples of firms of Western and Asian origin. Research limitations/implications – This research has produced empirical evidence in an Asian setting for some of the hypothesized relationships and pointed out that the impacts of certain organizational variables may differ across firms of different geographic (cultural) background. However, it is primarily empirical in nature and is weak in its theoretic underpinning to explain why these organizational variables are adopted in the study. Originality/value – The findings of this study in an Asian setting add to those conducted in the West, and thus help fill the lacuna of research involving the variables relevant to ERP adoption.