What influences ERP beliefs — Logical evaluation or imitation?

Various models have been proposed to explain information technology (IT) adoption behavior. However, these models are based primarily on logical deliberation. In reality, it is impossible to obtain perfect information for a logical evaluation of new or emerging IT. In this situation, sometimes the “best alternative” is imitation. This study proposed an integrated model (based on diffusion of innovation and imitation models) that examines the effect of these two opposing forces on the beliefs of enterprise resource planning (ERP). This study also explored how these relationships were affected by the temporal effect of adoption, as well as the extent of implementation. Our findings indicate that imitative forces, along with logical evaluations, are shown to have a consistent direct effect and significant indirect effect on beliefs. Our study also indicates that ERP adoption time and extent have different effects on imitation and logical evaluation behaviors. Hence, imitative forces play a crucial role in the decision-making process, which opens up a new avenue for research into technology adoption.

Research Highlights
► Both imitative and logical evaluation forces have significant direct effect on ERP beliefs.
► Most imitation forces have significant impact on logical evaluation forces.
► ERP beliefs can change over time, with imitation forces more influential at an earlier implementation stage and logical evaluation forces more important at a later stage.
► ERP beliefs are affected by ERP implementation extent. Imitation forces are more influential on smaller-scale ERP implementation and evaluation forces are more critical on larger-scale implementation.