The impact of sourcing enterprise system use and work process interdependence on sourcing professionals’ job outcomes

Abstract

a b s t r a c tWe examine sourcing professionals' work context to conceptualize how they use sourcing enterprise systems (SESs) and to understand when SES use results in positive/negative job outcomes. We differentiate between SES use for supplier selection and supplier governance, identify sourcing professionals' work process interdependence as a moderator for the impacts of SES use on job satisfaction, and suggest job satisfaction mediates the impacts of SES use on job performance. We conducted a field study of sourcing professionals' SES use at one of the largest consumer product companies in the United States, which has implemented an SES to innovate its sourcing professionals' work processes. Based on our analysis of the survey and qualitative data we collected, we found the impacts of both types of SES use (1) to be negative on job satisfaction when work process interdependence was high, (2) to be positive on job satisfaction when work process interdependence was low, and (3) to be mediated by job satisfaction for job performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for the literature at the intersection of information systems and operations management as well as for the information technology enabled innovation of sourcing processes and, more generally, complex business processes.

ERP System versus Stand‐Alone Enterprise Applications in the Mitigation of Operational Glitches

“…4–7). This advice aligns with research on factors that enhance and weaken the implementation effects of both ERP systems (Gattiker & Goodhue, ) and SEAs (Rai & Hornyak, ). Nonetheless, the literature does not answer whether using SEAs in appropriate conditions is truly more effective than using an ERP system, nor does it conclude which should be used when both differentiation and cross‐functional integration are needed simultaneously.…”

“…Research, moreover, has shown that the benefits of an ERP system increase along with the functional scope of its implementation (Ranganathan & Brown, ; Karimi et al., ). A number of studies, however, have documented the benefits of using enterprise software other than ERP systems, including business function‐specific software for sourcing (Rai & Hornyak, ), production planning (Banker, Bardhan, Hsihui, & Shu, ; Hendricks et al., ; Stratman, ; Carvalho, Scavarda, & Lustosa, ), sales (Sundaram, Schwarz, Jones, & Chin, ; Ahearne, Jones, Rapp, & Mathieu, ; Hsieh, Rai, Petter, & Ting, ; Zablah, Bellenger, Straub, & Johnston, ), and product design (Yassine, Kim, Roemer, & Holweg, ; Heim, Mallick, & Peng, ). Taken together, the available evidence presents three possible conclusions: (i) extensive use of both an ERP system and SEAs brings the maximum benefits, (ii) SEAs can replace an ERP system without adverse consequences to operational performance, or (iii) the relative effectiveness of an ERP system versus SEAs depends on the context.…”

“…The second potential conclusion—that SEAs can replace an ERP system without adverse consequences to operational performance—is widely implied, but not tested, in the literature. Studies on the use of SEAs have found positive performance effects in various business functions but have typically not made comparisons to ERP system use in the same functions (Yassine et al., ; Sundaram et al., ; Ahearne et al., ; Heim et al., ; Hsieh et al., ; Zablah et al., ; Rai & Hornyak, ; Carvalho et al., ). The few exceptions that have compared performance implications have reported greater overall benefits from ERP system use (Banker et al., ; Hendricks et al., ; Stratman, ).…”

“…A third condition is functional interdependence , or the extent to which changing one business function's operating plans necessitates changes in others (Thompson, ). Research on enterprise software implementations has found tentative evidence for the role of this condition (Gattiker & Goodhue, ; Rai & Hornyak, ), but no study to date has directly compared the benefits of using an ERP system versus SEAs under varying levels of functional interdependence.…”

Research on the Existing Problems and Countermeasures for Enterprise Cost Management under Modern Enterprise System

“…If in this case the allocation of indirect costs in the traditional way, it may cause the product cost distortion. Thus, the use of strategic cost management will be more than a single standard of distribution according to the cost drivers instead of the standard distribution, so as to highlight the advantages of management, in order to correctly calculate the cost of the product with the distribution of the indirect costs [4][5]. In this paper, we conduct research on the existing problems and countermeasures for enterprise cost management under modern enterprise system.…”