The Evolution of ERP Closure: Insights from the Social Shaping View of Technology

Abstract

This study reports a case study of a large organization that has implemented and used enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) for more than 10 years. Adopting the social shaping view of technology (SST) to study the dialectical interplay between the global structures embodied in the ERP and the local structures, the case study finds that the ERP closure is provisional. There is a cycle of stabilization and destabilization. It shows that "closure by consensus" in the implementation and use of large scale, enterprise-wide information systems is by no means as simple as previous researchers would suggest. Before reaching a consensus, different types of closure emerge to end the dialectical interplay temporarily between the local structures and the global structures. This study provides a better understanding for how and when the provisional closure is opened, changed, and re-closed over time from the SST perspective including both actors' interplay and contextual influence.