Appropriating Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in Colleges of Business: Extending Adaptive Structuration Theory for Testability

Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall 2004 by LeRouge, Cynthia, Webb, Harold W

ABSTRACT

Enterprise resource planning systems are a form of advanced information technology that is quickly becoming commonplace in colleges of business. The nature of software, industry involvement, and academe influences how enterprise resource planning systems are integrated into business education processes. The appropriation of these systems in an academic setting involves a great deal of change, which, if not carefully considered, could result in failure to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for students, the academic institution and industry stakeholders. Adaptive structuration theory provides a conceptual change model that helps capture the longitudinal change process. In order to provide a better understanding of the periods of routine use at the center of adaptive structuration theory, we introduce theory from the concerns-based adoption model. We integrate aspects of these two theories in the academic setting to provide a theoretical framework that explains the enterprise resource planning systems appropriation process and provide a method for studying the utilization of advanced information technologies for educational purposes. This framework may also be used as a practical means of identifying and considering appropriation issues when planning and evaluating enterprise resource planning systems usage in the classroom.

Keywords: Innovation Configuration, Enterprise Resource Planning System, Adaptive Structuration Theory, Business Education, Technology Adoption

1. INTRODUCTION

A good understanding of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is becoming essential for the aspiring business professional, and is now considered by some a price of market entry for many businesses (Kumar and Van Hillegersberg, 2000). Critical business applications such as supply chain management and e-commerce rely on ERP systems, thus driving market expansion. Though it initially focused on technology-driven issues, ERP systems development has shifted its attention to business-driven issues and the effect of the ERP on the bottom line (Menezes, 2000). In response to this market-driven environment and the need for currency in business education, many university business departments have implemented the use of advanced information technologies (AITs), including ERP systems, in their classrooms to enrich the educational process and to satisfy the demands of students and employers.

The application of AITs such as ERP systems in the classroom has implications for student performance, academic department infrastructure, and course content that could lead to far-reaching changes in business education. Additionally, the level of commitment required to adopt these systems, their interdisciplinary nature, and level of systems sophistication (Kumar and Van Hillegersberg, 2000; Sumner, 1999) present an intriguing area of study within an academic context. Surprisingly, research on key ERP issues in business education has been sparse (Hayes et al., 2001).

At the heart of the opportunities presented and the challenges to be overcome in the deployment of ERPs in industry and colleges of business is configurability. Configuration capabilities are afforded through discrete features and options within each ERP module. These capabilities purport to enable a "tailored fit" to business policies, practices, and ways of organizing work (Fichman and Moses, 1999). Appropriate configurations in industry integrate applicable best practices embedded in software feature options (Williams, 1997) with use patterns that are consistent with a particular organization's structure to arrive at a "fit" or "situated appropriation pattern." Just as an understanding of configurations is essential to the successful adoption of ERP systems in industry, an understanding of the implications of various configurations in academe is essential to the successful adoption of ERP systems in the classroom.

However, the study of successful appropriation patterns in industry has limited application when studying the use of ERPs as learning tools in colleges of business. There are valid distinctions among the nature and objectives of ERP appropriations in academic and industrial contexts, respectively. Aside from considerations concerning organizational structures and purposes, the technological reality is that ERP systems were designed with industrial best practices in mind (the spirit of ERPs is industrial). ERPs were not designed to be learning tools that embody educational best practices. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to propose a model derived through inductive development that can depict the appropriation process and associated variables in a way that is useful for understanding outcomes that are relevant to the academic community. This proposed model may be used to guide research by identifying potential relationships among key variables, and to provide educators with a framework for planning and evaluating the appropriation process.

The context of the proposed research model views technology adoption as a highly discontinuous or episodic process in which users alternate between short periods of intensive adaptive activity and longer periods of routine use (Tyre and Orlikowski, 1996). To address this viewpoint, we integrate a theory that supports a longitudinal perspective of evolution in information technology adoption, the adaptive structuration theory (AST) (DeSanctis and Poole,1994), with a theory that recognizes longer periods of routine use of the technology within the domain of education, the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) (Hall and Hord, 1987). Specifically, we integrate constructs from the CBAM to provide a mechanism to ground AST constructs for a more concentrated study of successful adoption patterns, while recognizing the possibility of change in appropriation patterns. CBAM theorists have developed protocols for measuring variables associated with the appropriation of educational innovations during periods of routine use. These protocols may be applicable to the use of ERP systems in colleges of business. The integration of these two models aids one's understanding of the complexity of adopting ERP systems in colleges of business and provides a basis for measuring, testing, and prescribing various approaches of adoption. The premise of the integrated model is based on a review of existing literature, action research from one author's experience in implementing and using ERP systems (as an ERP vendor representative and user), content analysis of academic list serve discussions of ERP systems, information systems and computer science curriculum guides, and unstructured interviews with ERP users.