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The technological innovation of Software as a Service-Enterprise Resource Planning (SaaS-ERP) opens several relative advantages, which may be realized by choosing the proper operation mode. Thus a company looking for a new ERP system faces the question: When and under what conditions does it make sense to choose a SaaS-ERP system? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The relative advantage criterion of the diffusion of innovation theory, derived as operation mode differences, determine the conditions under which SaaS- or On-Premise-ERP is preferable: a classification of all main systemic operation mode differences between SaaS and On-Premise for the more complex ERP systems is presented. The systemic differences were identified by analytic generalization using triangulation between a literature review and a multiple case study with four ERP producers.

The most significant decision factors between ERP operation modes are flexibility, customization, cost, and operation and maintenance. General strategies have been derived by bringing the theoretical reasons together with the operation mode difference criteria. Typical criteria for selecting SaaS-ERP are a lack of IT-capacity or capabilities, as well as high need for flexibility, due to business development, seasonality, growth, collaboration and/or expansion. On-Premise-ERPs should be selected if specific or strategic resources would be outsourced or when major customization is a need.

Case research is limited in that it reveals only ERP producers’ view and omits outlying cases.

The findings implicate that ERP selecting customers should consider and expand their criteria for ERP selection by operation mode criteria.

The classification of the most essential operation mode differences allows, for the first time, ERP selecting customers to design selection strategies. ERP selecting companies should strategically favor the operation mode that best suits their respective organizational characteristics so as to obtain the best possible support from the ERP operation modes.

Argues that the organizational involvement of large scale information technology packages, such as those known as enterprise resource planning (ERP), has important implications that go far beyond the acknowledged effects of keeping the organizational operations accountable and integrated across functions and production sites. Claims that ERP packages are predicated on an understanding of human agency as a procedural affair and of organizations as an extended series of functional or cross‐functional transactions. Accordingly, the massive introduction of ERP packages to organizations is bound to have serious implications that precisely recount the procedural forms by which such packages instrument organizational operations and fashion organizational roles. The conception of human agency and organizational operations in procedural terms may seem reasonable yet it recounts a very specific and, in a sense, limited understanding of humans and organizations. The distinctive status of framing human agency and organizations in procedural terms becomes evident in its juxtaposition with other forms of human action like improvisation, exploration or playing. These latter forms of human involvement stand out against the serial fragmentation underlying procedural action. They imply acting on the world on loose premises that trade off a variety of forms of knowledge and courses of action in attempts to explore and discover alternative ways of coping with reality.

This research enlarges the debate on the operations management strategies pursued by manufacturing companies. The purpose of this paper is to focus on issues concerning servitisation and customisation, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Lean-agile, supply chain orchestration, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Lean for design management.

A questionnaire of eight questions which stemmed from a literature review was completed by 152 senior operations managers from 120 large European manufacturing companies. Responses were scaled from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The results were tested for reliability using Cronbach’s α test. The questions were tested through a one-sample t-test.

The 152 respondents consider servitisation and standardisation to be a trade-off. They consider integration of ERP strategies with Lean and agile systems and customised products/processes to be difficult. Furthermore, suppliers’ orchestration is considered not that suitable for manufacturing companies and suppliers’ CSR performance measurement excessive. By contrast, a CSR internal performance measurement is helpful for increasing sales. The respondents also indicate that there is a lack of Lean tools for design and development processes and Six Sigma is the only strategy for improving quality performance in design and development processes.

The findings are applicable only to the manufacturing sector. The findings of this research indicate many avenues of research for scholars.

The findings can be very useful for manufacturing operations managers deciding their future strategies on operations.

Findings related to servitisation and customisation, ERP and Lean-agile, supply orchestration for manufacturing companies and Lean and agile for product design are original and open a valuable debate.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

While the need for information systems is regularly highlighted in the humanitarian logistics literature, a detailed model of what such system would look like is missing. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need and advantages of enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology in humanitarian emergency logistics. The paper also proposes a model for the configuration, maintenance, operation, and improvement of the system.

This conceptual paper uses existing logistics and information systems literature to build the logical case for an integrated enterprise system for humanitarian emergencies, and to propose conceptual content and process models.

The problem of lack of coordination is reviewed, and a holistic solution is proposed through a structure and model of ERP systems technology to meet the specific requirements of humanitarian emergencies.

As in any conceptual paper, a limitation of this paper is the lack of empirical validation of the proposed system. It also might be difficult to obtain the cooperation of multiple organizations. This research focuses on emergency humanitarian logistics, where effectiveness and speed have priority over simplicity or cost.

The model proposed in this paper links current efforts in humanitarian emergency coordination with existing supply chain information technologies, and is practically feasible both from the technological and organizational perspectives.

Because of the critical, life or death nature of the problem, social and ethical implications of this research are broad, including the divergence of coordination in humanitarian vs commercial and military logistics, as well as inter-agency politics.

This paper is a bold but realistic attempt to take a holistic view of humanitarian logistics and design a system that would be effective, and calls humanitarian organizations worldwide to collaborate in its implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to attempts to provide further insight into IS adoption by investigating how 12 factors within the technology-organization-environment framework explain small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

The approach for data collection was questionnaire survey involving executives of SMEs drawn from six fast service enterprises with strong operations in Port Harcourt. The mode of sampling was purposive and snow ball and analysis involves logistic regression test; the likelihood ratios, Hosmer and Lemeshow’s goodness of fit, and Nagelkerke’s R² provided the necessary lenses.

The 12 hypothesized relationships were supported with each factor differing in its statistical coefficient and some bearing negative values. ICT infrastructures, technical know-how, perceived compatibility, perceived values, security, and firm’s size were found statistically significant adoption determinants. Although, scope of business operations, trading partners’ readiness, demographic composition, subjective norms, external supports, and competitive pressures were equally critical but their negative coefficients suggest they pose less of an obstacle to adopters than to non-adopters. Thus, adoption of ERP by SMEs is more driven by technological factors than by organizational and environmental factors.

The study is limited by its scope of data collection and phases, therefore extended data are needed to apply the findings to other sectors/industries and to factor in the implementation and post-adoption phases in order to forge a more integrated and holistic adoption framework.

The model may be used by IS vendors to make investment decisions, to meet customers’ needs, and to craft informed marketing programs that would appeal to actual and potential adopters and cause them to progress in the customer loyalty ladder.

The paper contributes to the growing research on IS innovations’ adoption by using factors within the T-O-E framework to explains SMEs’ adoption of ERP.

Faced with increasing global competition and growing customer expectations, manufacturers looking for significant performance improvements often look to one of the two choices: implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or applying the tools and techniques associated with lean production. In fact, many companies are today applying both approaches in an attempt to realise competitive advantage in the global marketplace. However, there seems to be an ongoing debate within the academic literature as to whether lean and ERP are complimentary or contradictory technologies. This paper aims to present a thorough and critical review of literature with the objective of bringing out pertinent factors and useful insights into the role and implications of ERP systems in lean production and to develop a research framework that can be used by researchers and practitioners for studying the value of integrating ERP with lean.

The research methodology employed is literature survey. Literature has been collected primarily through journals within the area of operations management. For rigorousness, textbooks, conference papers, white papers and dissertations have been excluded from the subsequent analysis. Though older literature has been considered to define the scope of this investigation, only literature published after the year 2000 has been considered in the analysis in order to be current in the research field.

The paper proposes a classification scheme for the current research on ERP and lean production, which identifies six major areas in the extant literature. The literature survey is used to find existing research gaps and provides a research framework for future research directions regarding applications and implications of ERP systems in lean production.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study the interactions between ERP systems and lean production.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the inventory performance effect of advanced material planning modes and analyse how internal and external contextual difficulties moderate this relationship. This study also identifies avenues for future research.

The empirical analysis uses a survey of material planning for purchased items in 292 Swedish manufacturing and wholesaling companies. Three dimensions of inventory performance are dependent variables: material planning performance, inventory turnover rate, and service level.

Advanced material planning modes are directly associated with material planning performance, but this study could not verify direct associations with inventory turnover rate and service-level performances. External and internal contextual difficulties have direct effects on all inventory performance dimensions and moderate the inventory performance effect of advanced material planning modes. The moderating effect is stronger in non-difficult contexts, for which advanced material planning has significant inventory performance effects. Demand- and human-related contextual dimensions are especially critical.

The study identifies the following guidelines for companies to consider in order to unlock the potential of advanced material planning: consider full implementation of advanced material planning in non-difficult contexts; minimise the plan variability effects of high parameter revision and planning frequencies; minimise the need for, and use of, manual modification of planned orders before release; reduce demand uncertainty and variability; and secure appropriate human skills and working time.

This study somewhat contradicts the literature on material planning by not finding a direct positive effect on any inventory performance dimension from analytical design of order quantities and safety stocks. The research adds to the literature by identifying direct and moderating effects of external and internal contextual difficulties on all three-inventory performance dimensions. The relative importance of managing automatic order release identified in the study motivates future research as the effect has not been previously highlighted in the literature. Accordingly, avenues for future research and an agenda for practice-oriented research are suggested.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of an Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) system on the role of accountants, to provide job qualifications for their reference.

This research adopts the case study method, using on‐the‐spot interviews and a questionnaire to find out the effects of an ERP system on the role of accountants.

The role of accountants is mainly to be transaction data handlers and financial report providers. Clearly, accountants must have certain degree of knowledge in the realm of traditional finance accounting. In addition, accounting supervisors think implementing an ERP system changes the role of accountants.

The data collected by the authors are mainly from the Shanghai Financial Center and regional businesses in Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan. The authors are only able to study the impact of ERP systems on the role of accountants in the short‐term rather than in the long‐term.

It is widely accepted that an ERP system is more than just an accounting information system, so implementing an ERP system will not necessarily promote the positions of the accounting department and accountants on the subjective cognition of accountants. Accountants need to have knowledge of financial accounting, IT and management after ERP implementation.