Achieving IS Assimilation of Enterprise Systems in Large Organizations

Abstract

Organizations have made significant investment of time, money and effort in implementation and upkeep of enterprise systems but very few among those assimilate the system to its full potential. Though IS research has been examining assimilation of enterprise systems since decades, it is still an enigma to research and practice. Ironically, the post-implementation phase is the most under researched domain even though actual organizational benefits tend to accrue in this phase of the enterprise systems life-cycle. The purpose of our research is to examine new antecedents of IS assimilation of enterprise system in the post-implementation phase of the system life-cycle using the socio-cognitive perspective of IS sensemaking and IS mindfulness. We measure IS assimilation using the long-term organizational benefits model comprising of integration mechanisms, process optimization, improved access to information and on-going major business improvement projects. We conduct three research studies which are telescopically linked with each other. The objective of the first study is to examines the role of socio-cognitive processes in influencing IS assimilation in organizations by examining its influence on the IS governance mechanisms and support structures. Delving deeper into the socio-cognitive newlinedomains, the objective of our second study is to examine IS assimilation through the lens of IS Sensemaking and IS Mindfulness. The objective of the third study is to find ways to improve and sustain sensemaking and mindfulness in organizations by nurturing the triggers and facilitators and pruning the hinderers to IS assimilation. We conduct three qualitative case studies involving large enterprises in India, which have been using enterprise systems for at least three years or more. We adopt a positivist qualitative research methodology by identifying the regularities and causal relationships between the constructs of the study and summarize the identified patterns into generalized findings. This methodology allows