Paper Summary
This is a review of “The process of enterprise resource planning implementation and business process re-engineering: tales from two Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises” article on pages 405 to 426 of the Information Systems Journal published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. in July, 2008 by Mike Newman and Yu Zhao.
The authors set out to study the implementation of ERP information systems in two small and medium Chinese enterprises and show how their outcomes are related to process implementation and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) while addressing the two underlisted research questions (Newman & Zhao, 2008):
The paper concludes that management support and adequate project management are key to the success of ERP implementations and that without this support these projects tend to drift. Also it states that gaps and issues are common to both successful and failed projects, the difference being that in successful projects these issues are appropriately handled with corrective actions taken.
Furthermore, the study advised researchers to adopt the process model approach against factor studies as they present many insights that are unavailable when using factor studies.
Paper Review
The article commenced with an abstract which presented an outline and a summary of the findings and conclusion as is good practice (Fowler, 2011), and to whet the appetites of readers to read the entire article (Hernon & Schwartz, 2010). This was followed by the introduction which presented a good context for the research (Thrower, 2008).
Despite the appropriateness of the introduction, the following issues are highlighted:
The article presented two research questions which were well explored in the paper. Definite answers were also provided based an analysis and interpretation of the data presented (Lipowski, 2008). These questions are of interest and relate closely with current issues faced by organisations which are defining criteria of relevant research questions (Hulley, Cummings, Browner, Grady, & Newman, 2013).
As stated in the summary, the research uses the interpretative research principles espoused by Klein & Myers (1999) combined with the Leavitt’s socio-technical model and the punctuated equilibrium theory. This research method as presented is easily repeatable. However, the study does not employ the factor studies approach, but goes ahead to made recommendations against the method which are not proven in the article.
In conclusion, the article presented an excellent research which made good use of references.
References
Fowler, J. (2011). Writing for professional publication. Part 6: Writing the abstract. British Journal of Nursing, 20(2), 120. Retrieved from https://www-magonlinelibrary-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/doi/pdf/10.12968/bjon.2011.20.2.120
This is a review of “The process of enterprise resource planning implementation and business process re-engineering: tales from two Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises” article on pages 405 to 426 of the Information Systems Journal published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. in July, 2008 by Mike Newman and Yu Zhao.
The authors set out to study the implementation of ERP information systems in two small and medium Chinese enterprises and show how their outcomes are related to process implementation and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) while addressing the two underlisted research questions (Newman & Zhao, 2008):
- “What are the major issues associated with accommodating BPR when implementing ERP systems in Chinese SMEs?” and;
- “How can the success or failure of ERP projects be better explained using a socio-technical parallel process model compared with a more conventional factor study”
The paper concludes that management support and adequate project management are key to the success of ERP implementations and that without this support these projects tend to drift. Also it states that gaps and issues are common to both successful and failed projects, the difference being that in successful projects these issues are appropriately handled with corrective actions taken.
Furthermore, the study advised researchers to adopt the process model approach against factor studies as they present many insights that are unavailable when using factor studies.
Paper Review
The article commenced with an abstract which presented an outline and a summary of the findings and conclusion as is good practice (Fowler, 2011), and to whet the appetites of readers to read the entire article (Hernon & Schwartz, 2010). This was followed by the introduction which presented a good context for the research (Thrower, 2008).
Despite the appropriateness of the introduction, the following issues are highlighted:
- The introduction states that the number of ERP systems have experienced rapid world-wide growth, however no references are provided to back up the claim. All that is presented is the predicted expenditure by IDC for 2006. Given that this research was published in 2008, this prediction should have been replaced with the actual expenditure.
- The introduction also states that the Chinese entry into the World Trade Organisation in addition to reforms has resulted in massive investments in IT. This is not supported by any references.
- Also, in the introduction, the web site is supplied for SAP but not for Oracle. Same standard should have been maintained.
- Furthermore, in the same introduction, the statement “China is now the third-largest IT market after the US …” is confusing as it is unclear if US is the first or the second IT market.
The article presented two research questions which were well explored in the paper. Definite answers were also provided based an analysis and interpretation of the data presented (Lipowski, 2008). These questions are of interest and relate closely with current issues faced by organisations which are defining criteria of relevant research questions (Hulley, Cummings, Browner, Grady, & Newman, 2013).
As stated in the summary, the research uses the interpretative research principles espoused by Klein & Myers (1999) combined with the Leavitt’s socio-technical model and the punctuated equilibrium theory. This research method as presented is easily repeatable. However, the study does not employ the factor studies approach, but goes ahead to made recommendations against the method which are not proven in the article.
In conclusion, the article presented an excellent research which made good use of references.
References
Fowler, J. (2011). Writing for professional publication. Part 6: Writing the abstract. British Journal of Nursing, 20(2), 120. Retrieved from https://www-magonlinelibrary-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/doi/pdf/10.12968/bjon.2011.20.2.120
Hernon, P., & Schwartz, C. (2010). Writing an abstract. Library & Information Science Research, 32, 173. Retrieved from https://ac-els-cdn-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/S0740818810000277/1-s2.0-S0740818810000277-main.pdf?_tid=444c5def-3cd6-4e45-8e14-a0f03abb8faa&acdnat=1529528770_8a549b250be0d002b13f24048affed45
Hulley, S. B., Cummings, S. R., Browner, W. S., Grady, D., & Newman, T. B. (2013). Designing Clinical Research. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.salford.idm.oclc.org/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzE0NzMwNTJfX0FO0?sid=892a5d5a-1d82-410b-bbbd-46fbb0076016@sessionmgr102&vid=0&format=EK&lpid=a010&rid=0
Klein, H. K., & Myers, M. D. (1999, March). A SET OF PRINCIPLES FOR CONDUCTING AND EVALUATING INTERPRETIVE FIELD STUDIES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS. MIS Quarterly, 23(1), 67–94. Retrieved from https://www-jstor-org.salford.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/249410.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Afc9549a3882d056838d5a175d6ce26ff
Lipowski, E. E. (2008, September 1). Developing great research questions. Americal Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 65(17), 1667-1670. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.salford.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=b97b7d65-6a04-42d8-9a5e-550d49c12c7f%40sessionmgr102
Newman, M., & Zhao, Y. (2008). The process of enterprise resource planning implementation and business process re-engineering: tales from two Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises. Information Systems Journal, 405–426. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2008.00305.x
Thrower, P. A. (2008). Writing a scientific paper: II. Introduction and references. Carbon, 46, 183-184. Retrieved from https://ac-els-cdn-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/S0008622308000122/1-s2.0-S0008622308000122-main.pdf?_tid=dab3b767-48b8-4d98-9d90-e38a0cc68c75&acdnat=1529616206_c5d8a4094ec441c02f2d64ba3933c0c1
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