The influencing factors of enterprise resource planning (ERP) readiness stage on enterprise resource planning project success: a project manager’s perspective

Purpose This study explores the influencing factors of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) readiness stage on project success immediately after go-live from the project manager’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach The influencing factors of the ERP readiness stage are explored through the literature and expert review sessions and are embedded in Kotter’s change management model. A survey-based empirical study is conducted among ERP project managers in Turkey in 2019 utilizing principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis to reveal the direct relation of influencing factors and project success. Findings Results show that the proposed model explains 65.179% of the variation with four components. The association of components through regression analysis reveals that project planning and management, employee commitment and change management directly relate to the ERP project success. Yet, surprisingly top management support is not directly correlated. Therefore, the results suggest that influencing factors of such long projects are to be evaluated by the stages of the project life cycle. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to the project managers’ perspective in Turkey and the readiness stage of the project life cycle. Practical implications The objectives of this research serve as a guideline for ERP project managers to consider the success factors in terms of ERP project phases. This ensures that the project manager allocates optimum resources to the right factors at the right time. Originality/value Despite numerous studies in the ERP readiness stage, this study opens new ways of future research while filling several gaps. First, the ERP readiness phase is discussed with a theoretical approach through Kotter’s change management model. Second, the influencing factors of the ERP readiness stage on ERP project success from the project manager’s perspective are explored, and factor structures are revealed. Then, the association of the factors with ERP project success of “immediately after go-live” is empirically tested.