Impact of cultural differences: A case study of ERP introduction in China

ERP systems are central to the information systems (IS) strategy of most international companies. With the global economy, there is pressure to implement such applications at a global level, in order to control and manage all the company processes at all sites. However, rolling out a global template in each of the different countries is risky as it does not take the local environment into account. Each country has its own specificities: organizational, cultural, political and economic, and these can have an important influence on the potential of the new IS. This case study describes a largely unsuccessful implementation of a French firm's ERP project in its Chinese subsidiary over 18 months. This system has been rolled out successfully elsewhere but our diagnosis suggests that China has particular cultural factors that include language, governance, political and legal issues.