JAVANESE CULTURAL BOUNDARIES TO USE ERP SOFTWARE: MSMEs PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have a major role in the resilience of the economy in Indonesia. Therefore, the development of MSMEs is the concern of many parties. One of them is to help MSMEs to get better at using information system technology. Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged the transformation of business management to increase information technology implementation. The use of ERP in business improvement is a must in the era of information digitization. By using an ethnographic approach to identified problems, this study examines factors that can be the key to successful ERP implementation in MSMEs. This study uses several MSMEs with various business sectors but joined in the same group. The group is a combination of MSMEs who are currently testing the implementation of a new ERP-based application. The process of acceptance of the application of the new ERP system turned out to be strongly influenced by the culture of the individual and the culture of the participant group. Our research focused on Javanese culture's impact on MSMEs. We found that Javanese as the most Indonesian-dominated culture has a great impact on MSMEs behaviour. Our result shows that common Javanese ethnic culture dominated their behaviour. Their behaviour tends refer to three concepts: madu basa, madu rasa, and madu brata (Sutarto, 2006). There are some characteristics in our sample. There are tend to avoid uncertainty, use a personal approach to avoid confrontation in their business, easily adapt to different conditions. They also tend to be cynical and pessimistic, including in addressing the information needs for their business. The results of the qualitative analysis carried out found that certain cultural elements have limited the success of ERP implementation in MSMEs.