PHÁT TRIỂN mô HÌNH sử DỤNG THÀNH CÔNG hệ THỐNG HOẠCH ĐỊNH NGUỒN lực DOANH NGHIỆP CHO các CHUYÊN GIA kế TOÁN

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
-----

Phan, Thi Bao Quyen

A DEVELOPMENT OF ENTERPRISE
RESOURCE PLANNING SUCCESS
MODEL FOR ACCOUNTING
PROFESSIONALS

A DOCTORAL THESIS

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
-----

Phan, Thi Bao Quyen

A DEVELOPMENT OF ENTERPRISE
RESOURCE PLANNING SUCCESS
MODEL FOR ACCOUNTING
PROFESSIONALS
Major: Accounting
Code: 9340301

A DOCTORAL THESIS

Supervisors:
1. Associate Professor, Dr. Vo, Van Nhi
2. Dr. Nguyen, Thi Kim Cuc

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020


i

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION
I certify that any content in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree at this or
any other institution.

I also certify that the dissertation is prepared by me. Any help that I have received in my
research work has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all sources and literature
used are adequately indicated in the reference.

Phan Thi Bao Quyen


ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The effort to complete this thesis would not have been possible without the contribution of a
number of persons and organizations. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to my two supervisors, Associate Professor, Dr. Vo Van Nhi and Dr. Nguyen Thi
Kim Cuc for their support and guidance. Especially Associate Professor, Dr. Vo Van Nhi, my
principal supervisor, his encouragement keeps me going even through the most difficult
moments of this study.
I would like to offer my gratitude to University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, and

acknowledge the supports I have received from the School of Accounting at University of
Economics Ho Chi Minh City. I would like to thank Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Xuan
Hung and Dao Tat Thang for facilitating me completing the PhD thesis on time.

I would like to thank my colleagues in Accounting Information System Division for their
encouragement during my PhD journey. I would like to give a special thank to Dr. Nguyen
Phuoc Bao An for providing me constructive feedback and making me trust myself that I am
capable to finish this stressful research project. I also would like to thank Dr. Nguyen Bich
Lien for her comments on system-use concept of the ERP success model for accounting
professionals, which is a motivation for discovering a more appropriate system-use concept in
the ERP ongoing context. In my daily work, I would like to thank Dr. Luong Duc Thuan, Dr.
Pham Tra Lam, Nguyen Quoc Trung and Nguyen Huu Binh for supporting me to perform
lecturing-tasks in order to facilitate my researching.

I am so grateful to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu for her enthusiasm for my research-method-relatedqueries. I would like to acknowledge the advices and the comments on how to effectively
adopt the Smart-PLS software to analyze the collected data from Dr. Nguyen Phong Nguyen.
I really appreciate his experience of such a useful tool. I would like to thank the help of Dr.
Trinh Hiep Thien for his assistance in distinguishing between reflective and formative
constructs.

I also would like to thank Nguyen Thao Nguyen for her counseling on

confirmation factor analysis.


iii

My thanks also go to academics from UEH and informants from participant organizations that
have assisted me to complete the pre-testing, pilot testing and main survey, whose names
cannot be disclosed owning to confidentiality agreements.

I would like to thank my brothers and sisters, as well as my friends, in particular, Phan Quoc
Hieu, Dr. Pham Thanh Ha, Phan Quoc Lan, and Nguyen Thi Thu Nguyet. Their help, support,
and friendship keep me balance every up and down moment and make the completion of this
thesis more interesting and enjoyable instead of pressure only or sometimes boringness.

I give special thanks to my parents, especially my wonderful mom, who have always stayed
by me, encouraged me to pursue my academic career, as well as assisting me to take care my
children. Without their support and sacrifice, this work would have been stalled. For this
reason, this thesis is dedicated to both of you.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband and my little daughters. Your love,
support and continual understanding have made this adventure possible. Therefore, this thesis
is also dedicated to all of you.


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION

I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

II

TABLE OF CONTENTS

IV

ABBREVIATIONS

VIII

LIST OF TABLES

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

XI

ABSTRACT

XII

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1

1.1 Chapter introduction
1.2 Background of research
1.3 Motivations for research
1.3.1 Motivation 1 - ERP research
1.3.2 Motivation 2 – Behavioral Accounting Research (BAR)
1.3.3 Combination of ERP research and Behavioral Accounting research (BAR)
1.4 Research objective
1.5 Research questions
1.6 Justification

1.7 Methodology
1.8 Research scope
1.9 Thesis structure
1.10 Chapter summary

1
1
2
2
5
9
11
12
14
15
15
16
18

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

19

2.1 Chapter introduction
2.2 Enterprise Resource Planning
2.2.1 Defining ERP
2.2.2 Evolution of ERP
2.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of ERP
2.2.4 The ERP lifecycle
2.3 ERP Success Models

2.3.1 Challenges of measuring ERP success
2.3.2 A summary of ERP Success Models from 1990 up to present
2.3.3 Issues with the existing ERP success studies
2.3.4 Differences between the current study and the eleven previous ESMs
2.3.5 Review of ERP success studies in Vietnam
2.4 Review of ‘rich construct(s)’ enabling to overcome unanswered validity-setting-related issues
2.5 Chapter summary

19
20
20
22
23
25
25
25
27
43
46
47
45
47

CHAPTER 3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK, CONSTRUCT CONCEPTUALIZATION AND HYPOTHESES

49

3.1 Chapter introduction

49

v

3.2 Theories used in the ESMAP
3.2.1 D&M IS success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992)
3.2.2 IS-continuance theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001)
3.2.3 Principle “fitness for use” (J. M. Juran, 1988)
3.2.4 How to combine three theories to form the ESMAP
3.3 Conceptual ESMAP, construct conceptualization and hypotheses
3.3.1 Conceptual ESMAP
3.3.2 Relationships among constructs of organizational-level impacts
3.3.3 Perceived qualities and benefits; and organizational-level impacts
3.4 Chapter summary

49
49
50
52
54
54
54
55
61
62

CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

63

4.1 Chapter introduction
4.2 Research approach
4.2.1 The nature of the phenomenon being studied
4.2.2 Research approach selection
4.3 Philosophical worldview
4.4 Research design
4.4.1 Selecting the type of research method
4.4.2 Time horizons
4.5 Research method
4.5.1 Instrument design
4.5.2 Sample design
4.5.3 Data collection
4.6 Ethical considerations
4.7 Chapter summary

63
64
64
65
65
65
65
66
66
67
75
80
81
82

CHAPTER 5 DATA ANALYSIS

83

5.1 Chapter introduction
5.2 Step 1: Data preparation
5.2.1 Data screening and cleaning
5.2.2 Straight lining check
5.2.3 Testing for outliers
5.2.4 Bias Tests
5.2.5 Section summary
5.3 Step 2: Instrument preparation
5.3.1 Instrument reliability assessment
5.3.2 Instrument validity assessment
5.4 Step 3: Testing the ESMAP
5.4.1 Analysis technique selection
5.4.2 Measurement model assessment
5.4.3 Structural model assessment
5.5 Chapter summary

83
84
86
86
86
87
88
88
89
89

97
97
99
104
122

CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

124

6.1 Chapter introduction
6.2 Descriptive findings
6.3 An overview of the relationship between accountant performance and organizational
performance
6.3.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of organizational performance

124
124
128
128


vi

6.3.2 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of accountant performance
6.3.3 Discussion on direct impact of accountant performance on organizational performance
6.4 Use and its outcomes
6.4.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of use
6.4.2 Discussion on appropriateness of effective use in the ERP context
6.4.3 Discussion on direct impact of effective use on accountant performance

6.4.4 Additional discussion on indirect impact of effective use on organizational performance
6.5 Satisfaction and its outcomes
6.5.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of satisfaction
6.5.2 Discussion on direct impact of satisfaction on accountant performance
6.5.3 Additional discussion on direct and indirect impact of satisfaction on organizational
performance
6.6 System quality and its direct impacts on use and satisfaction
6.6.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of system quality
6.6.2 Discussion on direct impact of system quality on use
6.6.3 Discussion on direct impact of system quality on satisfaction
6.7 Information quality and its direct impacts on use and satisfaction
6.7.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of information quality
6.7.2 Discussion on direct impact of information quality on use
6.7.3 Discussion on direct impact of information quality on satisfaction
6.7.4 Discussion on the role of information quality in D&M IS success model (1992)
6.7.5 Discussion on the role of information quality in the ESMAP
6.8 Perceived accounting benefit and its outcomes
6.8.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of perceived accounting benefit
6.8.2 Discussion on operationalization of perceived accounting benefit
6.8.3 Discussion on direct impact of perceived accounting benefit on use
6.8.4 Discussion on direct impact of perceived accounting benefit on satisfaction
6.8.5 Additional discussion on direct and indirect impacts of perceived accounting benefit on
accountant performance and organizational performance
6.9 Other advanced discussions on the ESMAP
6.9.1 Differences of the ESMAP by the length of ERP system
6.9.2 Differences of the ESMAP by organizational size
6.9.3 Differences of the ESMAP by ERP vendors
6.10 Chapter summary

130

131
131
131
132
133
133
134
134
135

CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION

149

7.1 Chapter introduction
7.2 Research questions revisited
7.2.1 How is the ERP success model for accounting professionals formed in order to improve
accountant performance, which in turn enhances organizational performance?
7.2.2 How is the ERP success model for accounting professionals (ESMAP) validated?
7.3 Contributions of the study
7.3.1 Theoretical contributions
7.3.2 Practical contributions
7.4 Limitations of the study and area for further research
7.5 Delineations and further research
7.6 Final concluding remarks

149
149

LIST OF PAPERS

159

REFERENCE

160

135
136
136
137
137
138
138
138
139
139
139
140
140
141
143
144
144
146
146
147
147
148

150
150
151
151
155
155
156
157


vii

APPENDICES

183

Appendix 2.1 Eleven previous ERP success models
183
Appendix 4.1 Advantages of using survey method in the current study
190
Appendix 4.2 Identifying formative and reflective constructs
191
Appendix 4.3 Evidence in relation to the expert panel’s feedback on the preliminary questionnaire
193
Appendix 4.4 The original Part A of the preliminary questionnaire
195
Appendix 4.5 A summary of changes in Part B of the preliminary questionnaire after analyzing
feedbacks from the expert panel
195
Appendix 4.6 The questionnaire after pre-testing

196
Appendix 4.7 Questionnaire translation process in the current study
200
Appendix 4.8 List of interviewees and demographic information
201
Appendix 4.9 Pilot study responses from three target informants
202
Appendix 4.10 The Vietnamese questionnaire after pilot testing
203
Appendix 4.11 Bias issues consideration and how to minimize them
207
Appendix 4.12 Sample size Calculator v2.0 for Cronbach’s Alpha Test
210
Appendix 4.13 The result of calculating the minimize sample size by G*Power software
211
Appendix 4.14 Sample size recommendation in PLS-SEM for a Statistical Power 80% (Hair Jr et al.,
2014)
211
Appendix 4.15 A covering letter
212
Appendix 5.1 Summary of Deleted Cases
213
Appendix 5.2 Result of Outlier Testing
214
Appendix 5.3 Independent Sample T-test for Non-response Bias
219
Appendix 5.4 Total Variance Explained for Common Method Bias Test
224
Appendix 5.5 Development of the final sample
226

Appendix 5.6 Instrument reliability assessment
227
Appendix 5.7 Sample characteristics consideration
229
Appendix 5.8 Process of interpreting the factors
234
Appendix 5.9 EFA Test Results - Scales without modifications
235
Appendix 5.10 Summary after Factor Analysis
236
Appendix 5.11.1 Results of fit consideration of higher-factor instruments – PAB
237
Appendix 5.11.2 Results of fit consideration of higher-factor instruments - USE
238
Appendix 5.12 Cross-factor loadings
239
Appendix 5.13 Internal consistency and convergent validity results of the first order factor
“PAB_operational” after eliminating indicator PAB18
240
Appendix 5.14 Decision-making process for keeping or deleting formative indicators basing on outer
weight and outer loading Hair Jr et al. (2014)
241
Appendix 5.15 Results of alternative models analysis
242
Appendix 6.1 Demographic characteristics of surveyed companies
245
Appendix 6.2 Demography characteristics of ERP system
246
Appendix 6.3 Demographic characteristics of informants
247

Appendix 6.4 Comparing sample means
248
Appendix 6.5 Testing the D&M IS Success model (1992) without PAB
251
Appendix 7.1 Practical implications for ERP adoption organizatons’ stakeholders
252


viii

ABBREVIATIONS

AP
AVE
B2B
B2C
BAR
CB-SEM
CFA
CFM
CFOs
CR
CSF/ CSFs
D&M
EFA
ERP
ES
ESM/ ESMs
ESMAP
Ex_U

Extended _U
FMCG
HTMT
IQ
IS
IT
KMO
MRP
OP
PAB
PCA
PLS-MGA
PLS-SEM
SAT
SQ
UEH
VAF
VIF

Accountant Performance
Average Variance Extracted
Business To Business
Business To Customer
Behavioral Accounting Research
Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Common Factor Model
Chief Finance Officer(s)
Composite Reliability
Critical Success Factor(s)

Delone And Mclean
Exploratory Factor Analysis
Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Systems
ERP Success Model(s)
ERP Success Model For Accounting Professionals
Extent Of Use
Extended Use
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio
Information Qualilty
Information System
Information Technology
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Test
Manufacturing Resource Planning
Ogrnizational Performance
Perceived Accounting Benefit
Principal Component Analysis
Partial Least Squares – Multi-group Analysis
Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling
Satisfaction
System Quality
University Of Economics Ho Chi Minh City
Variance Accounted For
Variance Inflation Factor


ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Rankings of the most mentioned ERP-related topics (Huang & Yasuda, 2016) ...................................... 3
Table 2.1: Evolution of ERP ..................................................................................................................................... 22
Table 2.2: Advantages of ERP (Mohammad A. Rashid et al., 2002) ....................................................................... 24
Table 2.3: Disadvantages of ERP (Mohammad A. Rashid et al., 2002) .................................................................. 24
Table 2.4: ERP lifecycle models .............................................................................................................................. 25
Table 2.5: Summary of ERP success models from 1990 to present ....................................................................... 31
Table 2.6: A summary of studies involving measuring ERP success in Vietnam .................................................... 43
Table 2.7: Summary of definitions and how to develop the conceptualization of PAB in ERP context ................ 46
Table 2.8: Advantages of the ESMAP ..................................................................................................................... 48
Table 3.1: Differences among the training, adoption and ongoing use contexts (adapted from Deng et al.
(2004)) ........................................................................................................................................................... 56
Table 4.1: Conceptualization of the constructs ...................................................................................................... 67
Table 4.2: Indicators of System Quality .................................................................................................................. 68
Table 4.3: Indicators of Information Quality .......................................................................................................... 68
Table 4.4: Indicators of Perceived Accounting Benefit .......................................................................................... 69
Table 4.5: Indicators of Use .................................................................................................................................... 69
Table 4.6: Indicators of Satisfaction ....................................................................................................................... 70
Table 4.7: Indicators of Accountant Performance ................................................................................................. 71
Table 4.8: Indicators of Organizational Performance ............................................................................................ 71
Table 4.9: The minimize sample size of the current study ..................................................................................... 79
Table 5.1: Summary of The Factor Analysis Appropriateness Criteria ................................................................... 91
Table 5.2: EFA Test Results - Refined scales ........................................................................................................... 92
Table 5.3: New conceptualization and operationalization of new factors extracted from EFA ............................ 94
Table 5.6: Internal consistency, indicator reliability and convergent validity analyses of the first-order
measurement model................................................................................................................................... 100
Table 5.7: Discriminant validity (Fornell and Lacker criterion)............................................................................. 102
Table 5.8: Discriminant validity (HTMT) ............................................................................................................... 102
Table 5.9: Internal consistency, and convergent validity of the second-order measurement model ................. 103
Table 5.10: Validity of formative second-order constructs .................................................................................. 104
Table 5.11: Collinearity assessment of the ESMAP .............................................................................................. 105

Table 5.12: Direct relationships for hypothesis testing ........................................................................................ 108
Table 5.13: Summary of results in terms of path coefficients, f 2 and q2 value .................................................... 110
Table 5.14: Results of total and specific indirect effects ...................................................................................... 111
Table 5.15: Direct effects including mediators in the ESMAP .............................................................................. 112


x

Table 5.16: VAF values of each mediator model .................................................................................................. 113
Table 5.17: Results of specific indirect effects ..................................................................................................... 114
Table 5.18: Results of PLS-MGA for ERP implementation and post-implementation organizations .................. 115
Table 5.19: Results of PLS-MGA for large-sized and small-and-medium-sized organizations ............................. 116
Table 5.20: Results of PLS-MGA for popular and non-popular-ERP-packages-adopted organizations ............... 116
Table 5.21: Results comparison among models ................................................................................................... 117
Table 5.22: Results of the adjusted R2 value between the ESMAP and the parsimonious model ...................... 119
Table 5.23: Impacts of omitting information quality to use ................................................................................ 120
Table 5.24: Impacts of omitting information quality to satisfaction ................................................................... 121
Table 5.25: A summary of significant total effects among constructs and significant difference of several paths
in the ESMAP............................................................................................................................................... 122
Table 6.1: Comparison of Variance Explained among three models ................................................................... 132
Table 6.2: Summary of PAB's operationalization ................................................................................................. 142
Table 6.3: Summary of the current PAB construct's advantages (in comparison with the original PAB of Kanellou
and Spathis (2013)) ..................................................................................................................................... 143


xi

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Different management software types adopted in organizations in Vietnam ...................................... 2
Figure 1.2: The number of publications on "ERP" in Google Scholar by year .......................................................... 3

Figure 1.3: Accounting value chain (Hunton, 2002) ................................................................................................ 7
Figure 1.4: Research question hierarchy ................................................................................................................ 13
Figure 1.5: A systematic procedure for designing the ESMAP ............................................................................... 18
Figure 2.1: A literature map identifying uniqueness and worth of the research topic .......................................... 20
Figure 2.2: Stand-alone applications' architecture (Loh & Koh, 2004) .................................................................. 21
Figure 2.3: ERP-integrated architecture (Loh & Koh, 2004) ................................................................................... 21
Figure 2.4: ERP applications market shares split by top 10 ERP vendors and others in 2016 ............................... 23
Figure 2.5: Categories of IS success (DeLone & McLean, 1992) ............................................................................. 45
Figure 3.1: D&M IS Success Model (DeLone and McLean, 1992) ........................................................................... 50
Figure 3.2: IS-continuance theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001) ...................................................................................... 51
Figure 3.3: The research model (the ESMAP) ......................................................................................................... 54
Figure 4.1: A research framework of John W. Creswell (2013) .............................................................................. 63
Figure 4.2: Location of VN (green) in ASEAN (dark grey) (Referenced from wiki website) ................................... 76
Figure 4.3: Different management software types adopted in organizations in Vietnam .................................... 80
Figure 5.1: Data analysis process of the study ....................................................................................................... 84
Figure 5.2: Data preparation process of the study ................................................................................................. 85
Figure 5.3: Instrument Preparation Process of the study ...................................................................................... 96
Figure 5.4: Process of testing the ESMAP ............................................................................................................... 98
Figure 5.5: Hypotheses Testing _ Bootstrapping Direct Effect Results ................................................................ 107
Figure 6.1: Effects of the length of ERP adoption ................................................................................................ 126
Figure 6.2: Effects of the organizational size ........................................................................................................ 127
Figure 6.3: Organizations' perceptions of the ESMAP's constructs by the adopted ERP package ...................... 128
Figure 6.4: Descriptive findings of organizational performance .......................................................................... 129
Figure 6.5: Impacts of ERP lifecycle phases on firms' organization performance (Ross & Vitale, 2000) ............. 129
Figure 6.6: Descriptive findings of accountant performance ............................................................................... 130
Figure 6.7: Descriptive findings of use ................................................................................................................. 131
Figure 6.8: Descriptive findings of satisfaction..................................................................................................... 134
Figure 6.9: Descriptive findings of system quality ................................................................................................ 136
Figure 6.10: Descriptive findings of information system ..................................................................................... 138
Figure 6.11: Descriptive findings of perceived accounting benefit ...................................................................... 141

xii

ABSTRACT
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is commercial software that automates and
integrates many or most of a firm’s business processes. It allows to access to integrated data
cross the entire enterprise according to real-time (Davenport, 1998). Therefore, ERP system is
expected to increase productivity via processes standardization, to improve decision-making
ability via information integration throughout the whole enterprise, to enhance cooperation
between organizational entities by connecting them smoothly, and the most important, to
maintain competitive advantage once these benefits are satisfied (Davenport, 1998). These
promises are possibly a close explanation of its increasing popularity. Namely, Fortune 500
companies are trusting ERP system1 and it is also a solution that large-sized organizations in
Vietnam select and adopt more growingly2.
Nevertheless, instead of achieving impressive benefits from their ERP systems, some firms
have faced difficulties in gaining the benefits they expected. Therefore, as suggested by
Markus and Tanis (2000), for both researcher and executives, one of the initial interestedquestions is whether investments in ERP will pay off. Several organizational-level
econometric studies conducted (M. C. Anderson, Banker, & Ravindran, 2003; Hitt, Wu, &
Zhou, 2002) give an answer that it is likely yes – on average. However, the impacts vary from
enterprise to enterprise, even from module to module (Nicolaou, 2004a) in which accountingrelated modules are in charge of changed-focuses. Kanellou and Spathis (2013) perform the
relevant literature and conclude that ERP implementation has a considerable impact on
accounting department of the business organizations. Hence, the executives’ next questions
are probably to be, how can I maximize the positive impacts on accounting department? Is
there some way to predict what the ultimate impacts of ERP systems on accounting
professionals will be in order to achieve a goal of enhancing organizational performance?
These questions are worth addressing. In attempting to do so, the author draws on D&M IS
success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992), IS-continuance theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001) and
the principle “fitness for use” (J. M. Juran, 1988) to develop the ERP success model for
accounting professionals in order to make them more productive, which in turn improves

performance of implemented organizations. The theoretical and empirical results indicate that
organizational performance is, indeed, influenced by the extent to which accounting experts
effectively utilize ERP systems in the adoption and ongoing context.

1
2

This information is quoted from website />This information is quoted from Vietnamese E-commerce Indicator Report in 2018.


xiii

This study makes an original contribution to both of theory and practice through forming and
validating the ERP success model for accounting professionals only. In a little more detail, it
provides empirical evidence regarding Hunton’s accounting value chain (2002). In addition, it
discovers and proves effective use as the most appropriate system-use concept so far.
Moreover, it makes an effort to investigate outcomes of accounting benefits perceived from
ERP system, which related-studies are much further under-researched. Last but not least, the
research provides valuable implications for organization management on how they can
successfully manage accounting department as well as accounting professionals in an attempt
to maximize ERP’s impacts on organizational performance, which executives have paid much
attention to for recent years but have not yet found out the answer so far.
Key words: ERP success model, accounting professionals, perceived accounting benefits,
system use, the principle "fitness for use"



1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Chapter introduction
The purposes of this chapter are to describe a broad overview of the research, generally
present methodology, and introduce forthcoming chapters. This chapter begins with research
background, and moves on a discussion on two main motivations for research, which focus on
explanation what research topic is and why to choose it. Identifying research topic is very
important as it allows limiting the scope of reviewing a literature. The research objective and
research questions are then addressed in the third and forth part of this chapter. Next, section
five of this chapter represents research justification to make clarify the significance of the
study. Subsequently, research methodology is outlined to enable to image how to conduct the
whole dissertation, and followed by research scope. Finally, the thesis structure will be
proposed, providing description of the six forthcoming chapters of this thesis.
1.2 Background of research
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is one of the most popular forms of IT for
businesses at present. Deriving from efforts to rationalize lead times and possession stock
costs, the 80’s manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) is developed into ERP system
considered as the standard that integrates business processes throughout the organization,
which in turn enhances operational efficiency (Akkermans, Bogerd, Yücesan, & Van
Wassenhove, 2003; Davenport, 1998). Callaway (1999) states that the ERP system promises
to achieve benefits in both tangible (e.g., reduced personnel, inventory, IT and procurement,
transportation, and logistic costs; improved cash flow management, revenue and profits) and
intangible (e.g., increased visibility of corporate data, speed of decision making, and control
over global business operations; improved customer responsiveness and business processes)
manner.
Such those benefits push business organizations towards adopting the ERP systems
(Davenport, 1998; Ifinedo, Udo, & Ifinedo, 2010; Vincent A. Mabert, Soni, &
Venkataramanan, 2003). This has been proved by tremendous expansion of the worldwide
ERP applications market for the last ten years. Its revenue, about $38 billion in 2008 (Ifinedo,
Rapp, Ifinedo, & Sundberg, 2010), has grown more than twice to approach nearly $82.2

2

billion in 2016. This ERP applications market is expected to continuously increase and reach
$84.7 billion by 20213.
Being consistent with the trend, in Vietnam, E-Commerce Indicator Report in 2017 also
indicates that the number of organizations adopting ERP system has been more increased in
2016.

Human
resource
management

Accounting/
Financial
software

SCM

CRM

ERP

Figure 1.1: Different management software types adopted in organizations in Vietnam
(Source: Vietnamese E-commerce Indicator Report in 2017)

As such, this study is conducted in the context, which the ERP system has already been one of
the most popular business-management-applications in organizations all over the world and
begins to be increasingly adopted in Vietnam.

1.3 Motivations for research
1.3.1 Motivation 1 - ERP research
With respect to a boom in ERP-adopted business organizations, research in the ERP has also
increased over the past years. To acquire how the growth of publications about ERP is, the
Google Scholar database is scanned for the term “Enterprise Resource Planning” in the period
1990-2016. The results of this searching are summarized in following bibliometric4 graph (see
Figure 1.2). This graph reveals the growing interest in ERP over the past 26 years.
Accordingly, ERP (although a little decrease) is still a prominent field in the research
community, with about 6000 search results on average in the 2009-2016 period (Google
2017).
3

These figures are quoted from the Allert Pang’s report (December 1st 2017) that is posed on website Apps
Run The World. Retrieved September 18th 2018 from />4
Bibliometrics is statistical analysis of bibliographic data; commonly focusing on citation analysis of research
output and publications, i.e. how many times research outputs and publications are being cited (Leeds University
Library 2017)


3

Figure 1.2: The number of publications on "ERP" in Google Scholar by year (Source: by author)

Huang and Yasuda (2016) conduct a comprehensive review of literature survey articles on the
ERP to highlight the current research status of this field. As a result, they summarize the most
mentioned ERP-related topics as follows:
Table 1.1: Rankings of the most mentioned ERP-related topics (Huang & Yasuda, 2016)

No.
1

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

The most mentioned ERP-related topics
New emerging ERP technologies
Critical success/ failure factors
Business process reengineering
Real benefits
System/ organization performance evaluation
User satisfaction
ERP selection criteria
ERP impacts
Change management
Implementation strategy

Among ten topics above, ERP critical success factors (CSFs) has been the most prolific area
in early ERP research (Grabski, Leech, & Schmidt, 2011). The reason of this may be that ERP
is very expensive, complex system, impacts the entire organization, and if it fails, it seems
likely to contribute to the failure of the firm itself (J. Scott, 1999). Moreover, many adopting
enterprises realize that the deployment of such systems is not as effective as expected (E. T.
G. Wang, Shih, Jiang, & Klein, 2008). Critical success factors (CSF) have thus constituted
few things that must go well to ensure success of an organization (Boynton & Zmud, 1984).
CSF is investigated to identify essential areas of concern and provides measures that would

aid in managing those areas (Boynton & Zmud, 1984). The CSF researches have typically
addressed several different issues. In most cases, typical CSF studies have consistently
identified a set of core factors critical to the success of ERP implementations including top
management support, the implementation team, organization-wide commitment to the system,


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and fit between the ERP systems and the firm (Finney & Corbett, 2007; Hong & Kim, 2002;
Murray & Coffin, 2001; Ross & Vitale, 2000; J. E. Scott & Vessey, 2000; Somers & Nelson,
2001; Somers & Nelson, 2003; Stefanou, 2000). In other cases, some papers have found that
firm size is also an important factor related to ERP implementation success (Bernroider &
Koch, 2001; Buonanno et al., 2005; Vincent A. Mabert et al., 2003; Muscatello, 2003; Snider,
da Silveira, & Balakrishnan, 2009).
Alternatively, rather than focusing on identifying the factors critical for success in
implementing ERP system, the few researchers are interested in building ERP success models
as untypical CSF studies. For instance, H.-Y. Lin, Hsu, and Ting (2006) develop an ERP
success model upon the DeLone and McLean’s (1992, 2003) information system success
model. Lin et al.’s (2006) model relates the individual impact to balanced scorecard measures
(i.e., financial effectiveness, customer effectiveness, internal business effectiveness, and
innovation and learning effectiveness). They demonstrate that the success of any ERP system
may be predicted by integration of the information system success model and balance
scorecard constructs. Specifically, they suggest that the adoption of balance scorecard criteria
will allow firms to more easily assess impacts of the ERP system is either positive or negative
as well as to more effectively manage the ERP system implementation.
ERP CSFs research is crucial; however, quite mature for a certain period of time; therefore, a
question is whether there still have the interesting research opportunities for ERP researchers.
Drawing on recent relevant literature, Mukti and Rawani (2016) as well as Grabski et al.
(2011) assert that there exists a paucity of ERP success model research. Thus, this study is
expected to increase insight regarding such an area. Another reason of choosing ERP success

model to study in place of investigating single critical success factors is due to its
advantages5. First, the ERP system causes complex and challenging tasks, and there are many
integrated factors influencing the level of success, therefore identifying primary factors
running organizational performance under a whole model is more appropriate. Second, the
model forces researchers to be explicit about the way the problem is perceived. Thus, there is
less room for sloppy or confused thinking when modeling. The act of systematically
considering the impact of one variable on another forces researchers to make their logic more
consistent when thinking about a problem. Third, model is effective and efficient way of
organizing researchers’ knowledge about a problem of interest. Hypotheses investigated in
model will expand their knowledge about the phenomena. Finally, model provides a safe and

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The last three reasons are quoted by J. W. Jones, Steffy, and Bray (1991).


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economical way of testing relationships as it allows simulating the effect of making a change
in one variable on other variables without actually making the change.
Finney and Corbett (2007) lament the fact that most of recent ERP CSF research (both typical
and untypical CSF type) has generally taken from a macro perspective or a view of multiple
top mangers, the perspectives of key or single stakeholders are often missing. This proves that
CSF research potentially still lies in either micro-level or target-level approaches. Likewise,
Grabski et al. (2011) suggest that ERP research has yet to sufficiently investigate some issues
such as how ERP influences stakeholders in accordance with stakeholders’ insights; or
whether stakeholders’ performance can be effectively improved in organizations adopting
ERP; or even whether the perceptions of stakeholders on the ERP system can enhance the
organizational performance of adopting enterprises. To put it in other way, to comprehend
positive impacts of the ERP system on stakeholders, a question is whether there is a model

guiding stakeholders how to adopt ERP successfully in order to contribute to increasing
organizational performance from stakeholders’ perspectives themselves.
For these reasons, it could be concluded that in terms of ERP research, a call for developing a
model measuring ERP success from stakeholders’ perspective has been established for recent
years.
1.3.2 Motivation 2 – Behavioral Accounting Research (BAR)
Behavioral accounting research (BAR) or behavioral research in accounting is defined as the
study of accounting professionals’ behavior or non-accountants’ behavior influenced by
accounting functions, and/or report system, and/or creating accounting information (Hofstedt
& Kinard, 1970).
Since the late twentieth century, BAR have drawn increasing attention from accounting
researchers, academics and international community (Nowak, 2016 ). In the early stage of
BAR, Birnberg and Shields (1989, pp. 41-61) extract five accounting-related schools of
behavioral research, namely:
(1) Managerial control – designing and implementing control system for staffs and firm;
(2) Accounting information processing – guiding users how to gather, process, store, and
create accounting information;
(3) Accounting information system design – concerning behavioral issues when conducting
to design information system of business organizations.
(4) Auditing-related-issues research – i.e., decision-making behavior of auditors
(5) Organizational-subjectivity-issues research – identifying the nature and interpretation of
social interactions in ideographic (as opposed to nomothetic) manner.


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Out of these five schools of accounting behavioral research, Birnberg and Shields (1989) also
mention a few behavioral researches related to accountants, which are called the studies of
accountants. Because of their shortage, they have not yet constituted the sixth school of
behavioral research in accounting. Likewise, Sorensen (1990) determines that the a school of

‘study of accountants’, indeed, exists however its status is alarming.
Recently, Tin, Agustina, and Meyliana (2017) conduct a comprehensive review to obtain a
clearer picture and more extensive knowledge about direction and development in behavioral
aspects of accounting. Accordingly, behavioral accounting research scopes from 2005 to 2014
are classified into seven schools as follows:
(1) Topics discuss the effect of human behavior on the design, construction, and use of the
accounting system (10.74%)
(2) Topics discuss the effect of accounting system on human behavior (13.22%)
(3) Topics discuss the method/ strategy to alter human behavior (29.75%)
(4) Topics discuss the handling of human that can affect subject’s behavior (27.28%)
(5) Topics discuss the research methodology associated with a behavioral aspect of
accounting, such as examining measures, developing measures, and variable construct
dimension towards human behavior examination (9.09%)
(6) Topics discuss building a model in accounting professions (3.3%)
(7) Topics discuss the use of theory to analyze human behavior in accounting (7.43%)
Given these related literature reviews of behavioral research in accounting, it is obvious that
research directions of behavioral accounting are broader developing although the priority to
each school at each moment is dramatically different. Notably, among such schools, study of
accountants is, indeed, more growingly concerned. This school, from being charged of the
few studies in 1989 (Birnberg & Shields, 1989), has been considered as a part of an
individual, independent group (10.74%) in recent years (Tin et al., 2017). The evidence points
to the fact that a call for the ‘study of accountants’ is real and vital.
Not only choosing study of accountants as a response to its call, this study intends to focus on
it because of the increasingly dramatic change of accountants’ roles and functions in ERP
environment. For example, Sayed (2006) emphasizes that the traditional accounting role in
IS-adopted organizations is declining. However, rather than a threat, he provides evidence
that accountants exploit the ERP system as an occasion where their skills and their accounting
knowledge are represented. Likewise, Newman and Westrup (2005) indicate that accountants
should be considered as subjects that need to be paid more attention to as the relationship of
accountants and the ERP system has become more increasingly intertwined. This relationship

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is confirmed via the findings of their survey in which about 83% of those who have some
experience of the ERP system choose the statement ‘the ERP system have positive effects on
management accountants’ in comparison with a total of 55% interviewees agree with the
statement ‘the ERP system have positive effect on organizational performance’ when being
required to give opinions about perceived effects of the ERP systems on organizations and on
management accountants. According to these statistics, there is no denial that users who
experience the ERP system easily recognize the impacts of ERP system on management
accountants, rather than on organizational performance. Moreover, their respondents (senior
accountants) concede that the ERP system is as a positive development enabling them to be
more focused on financial management and less on bookkeeping aspects. Furthermore, rather
than being changed their role by the ERP system only, accountants, in contrast, also influence
the design of ERP systems. For example, in ERP pre-implementation stage, when questioning
vendors about features that are supported by their packages, the focus of questions is often on
whether certain techniques such ABC and the balanced score card could be supported by their
product (Newman & Westrup, 2005).
Another reason explaining why a school of ‘study of accountant’ is chosen in this thesis is due
to accountants’ contributions to organization value in business organizations adopting IS,
especially ERP system. Drawing on Porter’s value chain and Elliott’s information value
chain, J. E. Hunton (2002) proposes the accounting value chain (shown in Figure 1.3) which
illuminates how accountants can add value to business organizations in today’s global
information and communication technology environment.

Figure 1.3: Accounting value chain (Hunton, 2002)


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Figure 1.3 reflects that the accounting value chain includes three-value levels ranging from
low to high level in the IS context. On its low-value side, accountants have no longer
opportunities to add incremental value to the traditional functions relating to identify,
measure, and record accounting transactions owing to IS’s predictability, and automaticability. The following phase of such a chain focuses on translating data into information that
makes sense. In a little more detail, in routine work, recording and processing accounting
transactions as well as creating previous formatted-information are conducted automatically.
Reliable IS controls relating to accounting are a guarantee of the integrity of such systems. As
such, accountants’ contributions in this phase are also not high. It can be easily realized that,
in the IS context, the more increasingly the accounting functions and tasks can be performed
by IS, the lower the accountants can contribute to benefits to enterprises. Therefore, the
significant contributions of accountants focus on the side that IT just assists instead of
performing accountants’ tasks. Here are some of outstanding values that accountants can
create in IS adopting organizations:
(1) Disseminating business knowledge: Information system provides functions and features
which allow accountants to generate, manage, integrate business knowledge and
disseminate such knowledge to inside and outside users of the organizations. Under the
viewpoint of Elliott (2001), a capability of knowledge leveraging makes accounting
professionals distinguish rather than different types of staffs.
(2) Developing externalities: Merging e-commerce and supply chains into organization
operations likely leads to appearance of externalities, which in turn creates new works
for accountants. For example, they need to monitor, control the flows of information
and protect the privacy, confidentiality and security rights of related parties. These
requirements undoubtedly put pressure on accounting experts, but, on the other hand,
propose opportunities for them to add more value to their companies.
(3) Providing assurance: Not only adding value impossibly-replaced to organizations,
accounting professionals also provide assurance for managers, investors, and societies
via auditor’s opinion regarding the fairness on and off financial reporting.
(4) Internal value of accounting systems: Drawing on data integration feature of some IS
(especially ERP system), accountants conduct to process data, and create useful

decision-making information more quickly, reliably and relevantly.
To sum up, this thesis focuses on “study of accountants” due to its increasing concern in BAR
literature; the more growingly intertwined relationship between accountants and ERP system;
and their valuable contributions in IS-adopting business organizations.


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1.3.3 Combination of ERP research and Behavioral Accounting research (BAR)
Combination of ERP research and BAR is essential and timely because ERP is a
transformative force on the accounting. In reality, because of its accounting benefits, ERP
requires accounting expertises to change their role in order to make broader contribution to
the company, such as reporting on non-financial measures, auditing information systems,
implementing management controls within information systems, and providing management
consulting services (Grabski et al., 2011). Therefore, the thesis will combine ERP CSFs
research with the study of accountants.
Given research gaps related ERP research and BAR, a research topic is formulated. That is to
discover how to assess ERP success for accounting professionals from accounting
professionals’ perspective themselves, in simple terms, developing an ERP success model for
accounting professionals (ESMAP).
It is worth noting that there are virtually no researches of the ESMAP, thus, it is considered as
the first and unique study up to now in an effort to better understand ERP system-related
drivers leading improvement in organizational performance toward a point of accounting
experts’ view.

Drucker (2018) once said: “What you measure is what you get.” “Ensure that every measure
of performance is pertinent to be achievement of a goal or value of your organization.
Otherwise, you risk misdirecting your organization.” Accordingly, give the relatively few
studies on the development of ERP success model (ESM) (G. Gable, Sedera, & Chan, 2003;
Ifinedo, 2006; H.-Y. Lin et al., 2006; Smyth, 2001), two broad problems are identified: first,

the validity of ESM design and second, target setting in ESM design. These are also primary
concerns in developing the ESMAP.
Validity issue of the ESMAP design
The first problem in this line of research relates to the validity of the ESMAP. Being adapted
from Ittner and Larcker (2001), validity in this study is defined as ‘the extent to which a
model succeeds in capturing what it is supposed to capture’. Accordingly, there are two
questions that need to be considered when designing a model: what is supposed to be
captured? and how can a framework be designed to successfully capture this?
In the context of this study, the success of adopting the ERP system of accounting experts is
what supposed to be captured. Therefore, the remaining question is how a framework can be
designed to successfully capture the ERP success for accounting professionals.