National culture influences on European ERP adoption

Many corporations have invested in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems over the last decade. This study investigates the adoption rates of ERP systems from fourteen European countries using the e-Business W@tch dataset. This dataset results from an cross-national survey among over 6,500 companies from different sizes and industries. The study explores if a national cultural framework could be used to explain the differences. The framework used was Schwartz’s seven national cultural value types that score countries on conservatism, affective autonomy, intellectual autonomy, hierarchy, mastery, egalitarian commitment, and harmony. The hypotheses about the relationship between cultural values and ERP adoption were tested using multi-level analysis. After controlling for industry and size, it was found that conservatism has a negative relationship while autonomy, egalitarian commitment, and harmony have a positive relationship with the adoption of ERP systems. The paper concludes with a number of managerial considerations.