Understanding End-Users’ Acceptance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System in Project-Based Sectors

This study aims at providing an alternative view of users´ enterprise resource planning (ERP) acceptance. Despite the large body of literature, there are still empirical inquiries to investigate the ERP system implementation from end-users´ perspectives as well as from different organizational contexts. To address these issues, we set a project-based sector as our population of interest and seek to understand how project management practices are interrelated with end-users´ cognitive perception, and in the end, with their behavioral intention of using the ERP system. In doing so, this study incorporates the best practices of ERP system implementation projects, internal support, external (consultant) support, and functionality selection, into the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) that includes belief constructs and socioenvironmental construct (subjective norm). The empirical analyses show that managerial practices and socioenvironmental factor are significantly related to the original TAM variables in the context of ERP system. One of the interesting findings is the negative effect of consultant support on perceived usefulness, but positive effect on the perceived ease of use, suggesting a useful reference for future research. This study extends the existing literature by investigating potential managerial and socioenvironmental factors affecting user adoption behavior in a different organizational context. This study would also benefit project-based sectors by offering valuable managerial insights that enable them to appreciate and improve end-users´ ERP system acceptance and utilization.