Identification and assessment of risks associated with ERP post-implementation in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify, assess and explore potential risks that Chinese companies may encounter when using, maintaining and enhancing their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post-implementation phase.

Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a deductive research design based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. This survey is preceded by a political, economic, social and technological analysis and a set of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analyses, from which the researchers refine the research context and select state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the electronic and telecommunications industry in Guangdong province as target companies to carry out the research. The questionnaire design is based on a theoretical risk ontology drawn from a critical literature review process. The questionnaire is sent to 118 selected Chinese SOEs, from which 42 (84 questionnaires) valid and usable responses are received and analysed.

Findings – The findings identify a set of 40 ERP exploitation risks, which concentrate around operational, analytical, organisation-wide and technical issues. The top ten identified ERP risks and associated causes and consequences are discussed extensively in this paper. The study also explores and identifies ten statistical correlations between the risks identified.

Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the knowledge of ERP in general, and provides valuable insights into ERP exploitation risks in Chinese SOEs in particular.

Practical implications – The findings can be used by practitioners for the management and prevention of potential risks in ERP post-implementation.

Originality/value – The need for the research emerges from the growing awareness in the field that there is a scarcity of studies focusing on ERP post-implementation, in contrast with an over-abundance of studies focusing on implementation and project management aspects.