Does Personality Matter in the Evaluation of ERP Systems? Findings from a Conjoint Study

Most leading organizations, in all sectors of industry, commerce and government are dependent upon ERP for their organizational survival. Yet despite the importance of the decision to adopt ERP, IS research has so far neglected to comprehensively study the evaluation of ERP systems in general, and the impact of individual characteristics of IS managers on the ERP acquisition decision in particular. This study is the first of its kind to examine the impact of personality traits of IS managers on the relative importance they ascribe to evaluation criteria in ERP selection. We present the results which provide interesting insights into what evaluation criteria are more or less important for IS managers with different personality styles. In line with findings at the intersection of personality and IS research, we found that the personality dimensions of the five-factor model do considerably matter in ERP evaluation in the sense that the relative importance ascribed to evaluation criteria are affected by individual personality traits. Theoretical and practical implications are derived from our findings to advance insights for ERP adopters and vendors into the ERP evaluation process and to enhance the precision of IS theory.