Enterprise Systems and Customer Agility Exploratory Study in Vietnam

Contemporary companies in developing countries are raising their budget on Enterprise systems (ES). ES are expected to enhance Customer agility (CA) which refers to a firm’s capability to sense and respond to customer changes effectively. However, research in the relationship between ES on CA is contradictory. Taking Vietnam as the context, our study investigates the role of ES on CA in ten interviewed companies. Using multi-case methodology, the study also aims to seek for deep observation of CA in Vietnam business. Consistent with past literature, CA in the interviewed companies is affected by organizational context (i.e. industry, business function). In Vietnam, the role of ES on CA is not seen at its full extent. Most companies use ES to store and process data for its daily operation. Only a few of them store multiple types of data in their ES and utilize the advanced functions of the ES for customer analysis. Moreover, even when companies highly appreciate the competence of ES for advanced customer behaviour analysis, top managers are not using ES as a main source of information for their customer related decision-making. Due to their lack of trust on the capability of the system, low self-efficacy in ES usage plus the Vietnam trading specifics, top managers prefer other sources of data, own experiences and own report styles to make decisions.