Title: The impact of board interlocks on the diffusion of enterprise resource planning systems

Authors: Robert Pellerin, Pierre-Majorique Leger, Gilbert Babin

Addresses: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, C.P. 6079, succ. Centre-ville, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3A7, Canada. ' HEC Montreal, 3000, chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, H3T 2A7, Canada. ' HEC Montreal, 3000, chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, H3T 2A7, Canada

Abstract: This paper is intended to investigate the extent to which board interlocks contribute to the diffusion of ERP technologies in an interlocked network. Controlling for size, we investigate the effect of two network characteristics on the adoption decision of enterprise systems by organisations: the exposure of a firm to other adopters and the centrality of a firm within an interlocked network. In order to test our models, we gathered board members data of the top 1000 Canadian public firms and recorded adoption decisions within this network through the analysis of ERP announcements using keywords co-location. Our research findings suggest evidence of the diffusion of ERP technologies in interlocked networks.

Keywords: enterprise resource planning; ERP diffusion; board interlocks; interlocked networks; Canada; board of directors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2007.015722

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2007 Vol.4 No.4, pp.402 - 412

Published online: 10 Nov 2007 *

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