ERP Systems and Competitive Advantage: A Case Study of Key Success Factors and Strategic Processes

Abstract

This chapter describes the processes that firms and managers go through in their quests to create and sustain competitive advantages based on so-called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. It is based on resource-based theory, combined with the strategy process perspective and with existing literature on information technology and ERP. The theoretic framework is extended through a detailed case study of a specific in-house ERP venture in a European multinational manufacturing company in the paper packaging industry. The emergent resource management framework describes cognitive and cultural factors that support or hamper progress, including uncertainty, knowledge gaps, knowledge transfer issue, and the problems of ensuring that ERP usage is converted into competitive advantage. The framework also addresses managerial implications and potential solutions to such obstacles throughout the process.