Defense Date
Summer 7-8-2016
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Information Systems
Department
Business Administration
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Adriane B. Randolph, Ph.D
Committee Member or Co-Chair
Joseph H. Astrachan, Ph.D.
Reader
Humayun Zafar, Ph.D.
Abstract
For organizations that have them, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is an organization’s most wide-reaching information system, sitting at the heart of its accounting and operational structure. Thus, successful implementation of an ERP is critical to an organization’s success. Organizations have long struggled with achieving successful implementations of large-scale information systems, and family influenced firms are no exception. In light of unique considerations for family influenced firms as compared with non-family influenced firms, this research examines the relation between the influence of family ownership in family business and success in implementing an ERP system. This research presents a quantitative research study to understand the nature and needs of family influenced businesses by comparing the ERP implementation success of family influenced businesses across the range of family business ownership and control levels. Results from surveying 138 firms indicate organizational fit between a firm’s data processes and users to the standardized ERP system provide a real increase in implementation success as measured in cost, time, performance, and system benefits. Further, that larger firms experience greater levels of organizational fit to the ERP. Finally, firms with strong family influence on their culture have lower levels of ERP success.