Enterprise Systems Extended Use

Abstract

This research looks at the individual acceptance of an Enterprise System (ES) in terms of extended use. "Extended use" is intended to capture the situations when the users go beyond the basic use to discover through their own exploration new ways of utilizing the system. Building from the theoretical framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research seeks to identify what factors under managerial influence are most likely to predict extended use. The model suggests that extended use will be predicted by perceptions of usefulness of extended use and ease of extended use. These will be predicted by four factors: user participation, knowledge transfer from consultants, training, and situated learning. A survey of key users will be conducted to test the model. From an academic perspective, this empirical study seeks to contribute to: a) an emergent research area where case studies are still predominant and empirical studies are scarce, and b) the understanding of a stage of the ES project not as well addressed as the implementation stage. From a practitioner perspective, this research intends to call the attention of management to a set of factors that could help the organization get the most out of an ES by promoting its extended use.