Managing Successful Information Systems Implementations at Small and Medium Enterprises Managerial IS Implementation Effectiveness Theory

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for the economies of countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East and South America. Management practices in information systems require different approaches for SMEs than in large companies. Yet, most management research takes place in US-based large companies. Information systems implementations fail more than 70% of the time, and implementing enterprise systems is so risky and costly that their failure may cause many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to go out of business. Business managers’ involvement and decision are key to the success of information systems implementations. In this study, we develop an information systems implementation effectiveness theory for managers at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) where managers implement minimally customized information systems. Extant research has not taken investigated the influence of enterprise size, or the level of system customization. In this study, we empirically test the influence of the level of system customization on success factors by surveying 216 small and medium enterprises. We adapt the implementation climate theory and extend this theory by adding systems customization as a mediating variable. We find that for implementation effectiveness of low customized ERP systems at small and medium enterprises, managers should pay more attention to developing motivation systems and to empowering the project team. We find that these factors are even more important for success than implementation climate, project management skills and information systems structure.