The Effects of Social Network Structure on Enterprise Systems Success: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis.

Author List: Sasidharan, Sharath; Santhanam, Radhika; Brass, Daniel J.; Sambamurthy, Vallabh;
Information Systems Research, 2012, Volume 23, Issue 3, Page 658-678.
The implementation of enterprise systems has yielded mixed and unpredictable outcomes in organizations. Although the focus of prior research has been on training and individual self-efficacy as important enablers, we examine the roles that the social network structures of employees, and the organizational units where they work, play in influencing the postimplementation success. Data were gathered across several units within a large organization: immediately after the implementation, six months after the implementation, and one year after the implementation. Social network analysis was used to understand the effects of network structures, and hierarchical linear modeling was used to capture the multilevel effects at unit and individual levels. At the unit level of analysis, we found that centralized structures inhibit implementation success. At the individual level of analysis, employees with high in-degree and betweenness centrality reported high task impact and information quality. We also found a cross-level effect such that central employees in centralized units reported implementation success. This suggests that individual-level success can occur even within a unit structure that is detrimental to unit-level success. Our research has significant implications for the implementation of enterprise systems in large organizations.
Keywords: enterprise systems; information exchange; learning; postimplementation; social networks
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#200 0.182 banking bank multilevel banks level individual implementation analysis resistance financial suggests modeling group large bank's services levels national data early
#251 0.139 implementation erp enterprise systems resource planning outcomes support business associated understanding benefits implemented advice key implementing scope functional post-implementation implementations
#249 0.108 network networks social analysis ties structure p2p exchange externalities individual impact peer-to-peer structural growth centrality participants sharing economic ownership embeddedness
#285 0.095 effects effect research data studies empirical information literature different interaction analysis implications findings results important set large provide using paper
#277 0.085 structure organization structures organizational centralized decentralized study organizations forms decentralization processing communication sharing cbis activities appropriate provide identify organizing communications
#218 0.076 role roles gender differences women significant play age men plays sample differ played vary understand critical greater implications relatively offered
#286 0.074 success model failure information impact variables failures delone suggested dimensions mclean reasons variable finally categories years recommendations benefits studies identify
#68 0.072 business units study unit executives functional managers technology linkage need areas information long-term operations plans mission large understand knowledge current