Revisiting enterprise resource planning (ERP) risk factors over the past two decades: defining parameters and providing comprehensive classification

Abstract

Despite the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployments in the last two decades, organizations have also faced with implementation challenges. The present study provides a comprehensive categorization of these factors and the effective parameters using a meta-synthesis approach and with a systematic review of implementation risk factors and failure/success factors in the ERP literature. The most important factors were: Management of key stakeholder participation, project management and process management. The primary outcomes of this study which give it credit compared to similar reports were: (i) a new framework for ERP risk factors and their affecting parameters were introduced; (ii) a comprehensive ERP implementation checklist was attained; (iii) for the first time, parameters affecting ERP risk factors were identified and analyzed into organizational and national groups. Ultimately, organizational structure, IT maturity, human resources, organizational culture, and previous related experiences towards ERP were the most critical changeable organizational parameters that were recognized.