Determinants of the Adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning within the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework: Taiwan's Communications Industry

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are costly and complex but vital for companies having to face a rapidly changing business environment and an increasingly competitive marketplace. As the first study to examine the factors within the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework that affect the decision to adopt ERP in Taiwan's communications industry, the empirical tests conducted here are based on personal interviews with a sample of 99 firms in Taiwan's communications industry. Eight factors in three broad categories are tested using logistic regression, and four of these, technology readiness, size, perceived barriers and production and operations improvements, are found to be important determinants of the adoption of ERP. This model correctly classifies 79.8% of the decisions made with respect to the adoption of ERP. The results substantiate the usefulness of this model which may be interesting to managers seeking to be more proactive in planning for their adoption of an ERP system.