IMPLEMENTING ERP SYSTEMS IN CHINA

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of R/3 users in China which wasconducted in Spring 2000. The broad purpose of the study is to identify crucial implementationprocess and context variables which warrant closer attention in the study of IT-enabledorganizational change. As companies display a great variety of ownership structures in China(including state-owned, foreign-invested, and privately-held firms), the role of ownership can bestudied in relatively greater depth there than elsewhere. While it turns out that ownership isstrongly associated with implementation process characteristics, the association of ownershipstructures with implementation results is much less pronounced. It was found that projectgovernance, specifically the role and decision making style of the steering committee, can beassociated with a broad set of outcome variables after controlling for ownership and otherimportant context factors.