Xiaofeng Ma

Patterns of Enterprise System Implementation: the Cases of Chinese Corporate Transformation Xiaofeng Ma

This book aims to identify patterns of managerial processes for an enterprise system implementation (ESI). An ESI involves business strategy change, organizational change, and technical innovation. This book adopts structuration theory as a "sensitizing device" for understanding driving forces behind an ESI. Structuration recognizes that human actions are enabled and constrained by structures, meanwhile, these structures are the results of previous human actions. A pattern-recognition method is used to extract and describe patterns of managerial processes out of the structuration insights. Ten in-depth empirical Chinese cases are studied in a longitudinal way. Eight patterns are identified in this book. For project managers who manage an ESI project, they can benefit from this study in three ways: (1) Eight managerial process patterns present a reference for their practice. (2) A new insight to understand ESI project performance that clearly differentiates the operative performance from capability enhancement oriented performance. (3) Dynamic managerial processes to achieve different goals (Operative deliverables Vs. Strategic-impact orientated results).