Critical review of an ERP post-implementation Article

Mr. Traitet Thepbandansuk Student ID: 20043132 Module: RPP

Assessment 1 - Critical review of aresearch article

Identification and assessment of risks associatedwith ERP post-implementation in China

By Traitet Thepbandansuk, ID: 20043132

Introduction

In the article titled “Identification and assessment of risks associated with ERP post-implementation in
China,” which appeared in the 2009 Journal of Enterprise Information Management (JEIM),Volume 22,
Issue 5, was written by Guo Chao Peng and Miguel Baptista Nunes. The purpose of this article was to
identify, assess and explore potential risks associated with ERP post-implementation. The authors had
carried out their empirical research using a quantitative approach. They adopted a deductive research
design based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey for 118 large companies to examine risks of
ERP post-implementation. However, some limitations should be considered. This critical review,including
the critique of theresearch,is divided into four sections; Research question, Research literature,
Research methods, tools and techniques, and Research process and outcome.

Research Question

The purpose of this research is clearly stated, and narrowly focused.It is to identify, access and explore
potential risks that Chinese companies may encounter when using, maintaining and enhancing their
enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post-implementation phase. Although there are no
research questions in this article,the authors wereable to show the understandable picture of the whole
content of the study in their purposeof research. Both the primary and secondary research aims are
defined.The primary aim is mentioned similarly to its purpose in the abstract. The secondary aimisto
explore the impacts, probability, and frequency of occurrence of identified ERP risk events, as well as to
investigate the correlations between those risks. The researchers supposed that their findings would
benefit people whose work is related to ERP systems for strategic planning and decision-making.

Furthermore, the authors claim that their research was distinctive from prior studies. The wider fields of
interestin ERP systems had been mainly focused on ERP implementation and project management
aspects (e.g. Oliver et al. 2005; Ehie and Madsen 2005; Yusuf et al. 2004), and those aboutERP risks
had been addressed in ERP business issues and aspectse.g. Kleim and Ludin (2000, p3).In contrast,
the research topic of ERP post-implementation was extremely limited. Therefore, they specifically
concentrated on risks in ERP post-implementation to fulfil this research gap.However, most recently,
there have been more researchers who have become interested in this area, such as ERP post-
implementation performance in the Chinese manufacturing Industry(Yan et al. 2010).

Course: Enterprise Systems ProfessionalsPage 1 of 5 Assessment 1 – Critical Review


Research Literature

The abstract is concise and clear with the primary conclusion. The literature review presented in this
paper provides a synthesis of previous research,which leads to the performance of study. The authors
could extract important information from various sources by using the funnel approach. This approach
helped researchers conduct the literature review into more specific issues that, ultimately lead to the
direction proposed for the research program (Toncich 1999). For this reason, the authors could retrieve
valuable literature related to their particulartopic in order to identify, access and explore risks in the
critical analysis and survey processes.

In addition, there are more up-to-datearticles providingboth similar and different aspects. For example,
both the authors and Yan et al. (2010) indicate similarly that ERP vendors and software are not crucial
risks in the ERP post-implementation stage. In contrast, the authors mention that the most significant
factor is containing inaccurate inventory records, whereas Yan et al. (2010) claims that support by top
management is the most important factor. Furthermore, Sobyanina and Ilona (2011) also differently
indicate that losing IT experts and ERP know-how is the potential risk in ERP post-implementation.
However, some different findings may be discovered by because of conducting surveyswith different
sample groups, such as regions and industrial sectors.

Although some research indicates the level of risks different from this article, the 40 ERP exploitation
risks identified in this article are quite useful for both people whose workis related to ERP systems and
researchers studying in evaluation of risks in ERP post-implementation. ERP Risks can help ERP
stakeholders to reduce costs, obtain full benefits, and prevent potential problems (Grabski 2001).
Moreover, this article is cited by other researchers to extend the research area. For example,
Salmeron(2011) brought some risks identified in this article to forecast risk impact on ERP maintenance
by using his own model.

Even though this research wasn’t explicitly extended into new areas of risks associated with ERP post-
implementation, after the researchers successfully assessed ERP risks, they additionally studied to find
relationships between those ERP risks. As a result, the outcomes not only had the ERP risks assessed,
but also had the potential relationships, which were able to extend the research context. Ultimately, the
authors could summarise that the impact of risks plays a fundamental role in the failure of ERP due to
the potential casual effects between risks.

Finally, the article is filled with a sufficient number of citations from other sources. The 57 references in
this research are quite acceptable, and related to the area of research. Both in-text citations and the
reference list are correct. The references are suitably used to support ideas, arguments, techniques and
theories in the paper. This information ensures that readers can easily retrieve relevant reference
articles at a later time.



Research Methods, Tools and Techniques

The methodologies employed in this research are a deductive approach and quantitative study using a
cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Thissurvey enables data to be gathered at a single point in time,
and be used to determine the relationship between two factors (University of Texas no date).In this
article, two different questionnaires for managers and ICT experts were used to collect data of ERP risks
in terms of business aspects and technical issues, both at the same time.

Almost all research methods, tools and techniquesare suitable and clearly explained. For example, the
authors used business analysis techniques, namely PEST (Political, Economic, Social, and
Technological analysis)and SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats), to narrow the
scope of study in an effective way. As a result, all of state-owned enterprise (SOE) companies in
Guangdong province in electronics and telecommunications manufacturing sectors were selected
totalling 118 firms. With regard to PEST analysis, SOE companies were selected because it had played
an essential role in development of China’s national economy, and Guangdon was selected because this
region had achieved high levels of ICT. However, the authors didn’t clearly explain how the business
sectors were selected for SWOT analysis.

Although the authors didn’t mention what types of sampling method were used, the selected sample
groups were clearly identified. It seems that they chose a probability sampling method with cluster
sampling groups (SOE companies in electronics and telecommunication manufacturing sectors in
Guangdong province)for a large number of companies in China (301,887 companies in 2006). Even
though surveying only some cluster groupscannot reflect the population diversity, this method can
reduce thecost,increase thenumber of samples, and be carried out in multiple stages (Slack 2012;
Ahmed 2009; Albatineh 2011).

Furthermore, after the survey achieved the response rate of 36.5 per cent, the authors assessed the
potential risks by using a risk assessment tool, namely risk metrics, from three aspects; probability,
impact and frequency. Risk metrics is aneffective tool to find out the level of risks (Iomosaic 2009).
However, Anthony (2008) argues that using this toolis likely to be harmful in risk management decision
making,for example, when frequencies and impacts are positively or negatively correlated, respectively.

In summary, although the questionnaire response rate was acceptable, and almost all research methods,
tools and techniques were effectively used, there are problems that the authorsshould be made aware of.
Firstly, selecting inadequate number of sample groupsmay insufficiently reflect the diversity of population.
Secondly, determining and interpreting the level of risksmay be incorrect in some cases. Finally, it is
difficult for non-technical readers to understand how to calculate risk scores. Therefore, further research
should consider a suitable number of cluster sampling groups, find a better way to assess risks, and
show additional examples of calculating risks.



Research Process and Outcome

The overall outcomeis directly related to researchers’ findings from thestudy.The purpose of research
and all of the aims were achieved with sufficient processes and evidence. For example, the scores of
each risk affecting ERP post-implementation were accessed and identified from the surveyand statistical
calculation, the top ten identified ERP riskswere explored from the critical literature review process, and
the correlations between the identified ERP risks were investigated by statistical techniques. However,
the research is focused on a very specific set of Chinese companies. Therefore, further research may
apply their identified ERP risks to other types of companies, business sectors or regions.

It is clear that this research is helpful for researchers and other people whose work is related to ERP
systems. However, the researchers must be concerned about some ethical issues, especially involving
risk assessments and conducting surveys. They must be impartial, and should cross referencedwith
related research because otherwise the results may be harmful to businesses. For example, if
someimportant eventsare identified as being low or non-risks, business stakeholders may be
insufficiently concerned about preventing them. In addition, questionnaires must have an opening
statement informing the participant of the purpose of the research (Heriot-Watt University no
date).Finally, this research helps me to understanda lot more about research processes, methods,
techniques and structure in order to provide me with more ideas for my future assignments and
dissertation.

Conclusion

The overall research is quite good. The purpose of this research is clearly stated and narrowly focused.
The authors could systematically extract important information from the literature review process,and
use it to fulfill a research gap. Furthermore, this research is quite new and useful for both researchers
and people whose work is related to ERP systems. However, some research findings are different from
other more up-to-date articles, such as risk ranking.The methodologies employed are a deductive
approach and quantitative study using a questionnaire survey. Although almost all research methods,
tools and techniques were suitable and clearly explained, the authors should consider about population
diversity more, because their research was focused on very specific sample groups. In addition, the
overall outcome was directly related to their findings from the study, and the purpose of the research
was achieved with sufficient processes and evidence. Finally, the ethics used in this research were very
important. The researchers must be concerned about ethical issues, especially when doing risk
assessment and using questionnaires.



REFERENCES

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