Western ERP Roll-out in China: Insights from Two Case Studies and

Preliminary Guidelines

Paola Cocca

, Filippo Marciano

, Elena Stefana

and Maurizio Pedersoli

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, Brescia, Italy

Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning, Multisite ERP Implementation, China, Chinese Culture, Case Study, Roll-out,

Western ERP.

Abstract: China is one of the countries with the highest failure rate of implementation of foreign – western - ERP

systems. Western companies encounter difficulties in their roll-out projects in China mainly for cultural

issues. Based on the insights from two case studies, this paper aims to provide a preliminary analysis of the

main criticalities of western ERP roll-outs in China and suggest guidelines to increase their success rate.

1 INTRODUCTION

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is

defined as “a set of business applications or modules,

which links various business units of an organisation

such as financial, accounting, manufacturing and

human resources, into a tightly integrated single

system with a common platform for flow of

information across the entire business” (Beheshti,

2006).

Although the first introduction of ERP systems

dates back to the 1990s (Jacobs and Weston, 2007),

the rate of success for this kind of projects remains

relatively low (Panorama Consulting, 2015).

China is reported by the literature to be one of the

countries where the failure rate of implementation of

foreign - western - ERP systems is very high (Ge and

Voss, 2009; Xue et al. 2005, Zhang et al. 2003; Zhang

et al. 2005). Indeed, cultural differences play a

relevant role during the implementation of the ERP

system in those countries whose culture is radically

different from the culture of the ERP vendor. Culture

affects the communication, the organization

structure, how the technology and the business are

perceived, the legal requirement, and generates

resistance to change in all users whenever the

imposed ERP culture is different from theirs (Zhang

et al., 2005).

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6351-6042

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3502-9092

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6679-0362

Having become one of the greatest economy in the

world, China and its market are of great interest for

western enterprises, that often decide to establish

there a subsidiary or to make a joint venture with a

Chinese company. These enterprises adopt ERP

systems of western vendors and thus may encounter

difficulties in their roll-out projects in China. A roll-

out is an expansion of the domain of the ERP from a

company (or a group of companies) to a subsidiary

that currently does not use an ERP or uses another

system. It is basically an implementation of the ERP

system that is running in the headquarters, in one or

more of the subsidiaries. Managing a multisite ERP

implementation project is particularly challenging

when multiple locations with different managerial

reporting lines, languages spoken, and national

cultures are involved (Markus et al., 2000).

The topic of ERP roll-out of western companies

in their Chinese subsidiaries is under-investigated in

the literature. Only Avison and Malaurent (2007)

describe the case of the roll-out of a French firm’s

ERP in its Chinese subsidiary, first analysing the

main criticalities, and then, after a few years,

assessing the post-implementation results (Malaurent

and Avison, 2015).

A few papers dealing with ERP implementation in

China are available in the literature, but they deal

mainly with the implementation of a western ERP by

independent Chinese companies, not foreign-owned

Cocca, P., Marciano, F., Stefana, E. and Pedersoli, M.

Western ERP Roll-out in China: Insights from Two Case Studies and Preliminar y Guidelines.

DOI: 10.5220/0009513705790586

In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2020) - Volume 2, pages 579-586

ISBN: 978-989-758-423-7

579

(Zhang et al., 2003; Zhu et al., 2010; Sun et al, 2015;

Xue et al., 2005; Srivastava and Gips, 2009; Yan et

al., 2019; Lai et al., 2016; Marble and Lu, 2007; Liang

et al., 2004; Elmeziane and Elmeziane, 2012). In

addition, Reimers (2003) and Zhang et al. (2005)

present some cases of ERP implementation in

Chinese foreign-owned companies, but they do not

clarify if they were stand-alone ERP implementation

or roll-outs.

Although the majority of issues and critical

success factors identified for a western ERP stand-

alone implementation in China might be valid also for

an ERP roll-out, roll-outs present some peculiarities

that should be taken into consideration. For example,

due to the need to adapt local business processes to a

global standard template, a multisite ERP

implementation may not necessarily yield the same

benefits across all the local subsidiaries (Carton and

Adam, 2003). Furthermore, the degree of process

standardisation imposed to the subsidiary impacts the

degree to which the ERP system will change

managerial autonomy, task coordination, and process

integration in the subsidiaries: change in these factors

usually provokes organizational conflict and adds a

“political” element to ERP roll-outs (Markus et al.,

2000).

Based on these gaps identified in the literature, the

objective of this work is to analyse the main

criticalities of western ERP roll-out in China and

suggest guidelines with the aim of increasing the

success rate of such projects.

The paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 an

analysis of the background literature is performed to

identify the cultural elements that could affect an ERP

roll-out project, in particular focusing on Chinese

culture. Section 3 describes the research methodology

adopted. In Section 4, two cases studies of roll-out

projects are presented and discussed. Finally, based

on the main insights from the case studies some

preliminary guidelines to increase the success rate of

roll-out projects in China are provided.

2 BACKGROUND

2.1 Cultural Issues in ERP Roll-out

Projects

The culture of an organization is defined as “a pattern

of shared basic assumptions that a group learns as it

solves its problems of external adaptation and internal

integration, that has worked well enough to be

considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new

members as the correct way to perceive, think and

feel in relation to those problems” (Schein, 2000).

Then national differences such as national culture,

language, management style, politics, regulations and

customs can affect the “way of doing business”

(Hofstede, 1983; Simchi-Levi et al., 2000.), and thus,

organisational culture (Carton and Adam, 2003).

Many authors assert that organizational culture

plays an important role during multisite ERP systems

roll-outs and there is a need to recognise the unique

social context, especially when the ERP business

model reflects western practices (Shah et al., 2011;

Soh et al., 2000; Davenport, 1998; Umble et al., 2003;

Wagner and Newell, 2004; Ward et al., 2005).

Moreover, the failure to adapt ERP packages to fit the

national culture could lead to project running over

time and over budget (Krumbholz et al., 2001).

Culture has been identified as being one of the

most important factors influencing the success of

ERP systems (Chadhar and Rahmati 2004; Leidner

and Kayworth 2006; Palomino Murcia and Whitley,

2007). Indeed, cultural preferences and practices may

exacerbate problems since companies which

implement ERP systems suffer a radical change in

their organizational information systems (Davison

2002, Olson et al. 2005).

The following cultural factors that could affect

ERP roll-out projects have been identified in the

literature:

- Mismatch with local culture: ERP systems are

packaged software; this means that they contain the

vendor’s culture, most of the time under the form of

“best practice”. The “best practices” embody the best

applicable business processes, without taking into

consideration local characteristics. This causes a

“clash of culture” whenever the local practices

developed by national requirements (for example law,

taxation, ecc.) are different from “best practices”

(Davenport, 1998; Davison, 2002; Zaglago et al.,

2013).

- Management culture: if managers cannot see the

strategic implication of ERP systems or cannot

activate all the company to move in a certain

direction, the company will be affected by it (Talet

and Al-Wahaishi, 2011).

- Cultural change: the viewpoint of most enterprises

is function-based, while ERP systems are process-

based, therefore the introduction of an ERP could

cause disruptive organisational changes, thus

generating resistance inside the organisation

(Hammer, 1990; Marnewick and Labuschagne,

2005).

- Information flow: if the culture of the subsidiary is

highly hierarchical, it is possible that information is

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not shared inside the company, thus the integration is

deterred (Marnewick and Labuschagne, 2005).

- Communication culture: if management does not

explain its action to employees, on the longer run, the

workforce will not have the holistic view of the

organisation and its goals (Talet and Al-Wahaishi,

2011). The lack of information exchange results in

distorted use of the ERP systems, because they will

be used to reinforce hierarchical control instead of

cross functional integration (Rasmy et al., 2005).

- Language: different languages hinder the

communication between the parties. The assumption

that English can be used as the only language of

communication is incorrect: it is possible that users

may not be fluent in English. Whenever this happens

it is necessary to deploy countermeasures. Possible

problems that can rise from different language usage

are: misinterpretation, inability to use the system,

incorrect specifics, training failure (Avison and

Malaurent, 2007; Malaurent and Avison, 2015).

2.2 Chinese Culture

One of the most business relevant characteristics of

Chinese culture is the “guanxi”. The core idea of

“guanxi” involves “relationships between or among

individuals creating obligations for the continued

exchange of favours” (Dunfee and Warren, 2001;

Zhang et al., 2009). Due to personal obligation with

another person an individual might also pursue

behaviours that are detrimental to his/her company.

Nonetheless the Chinese people see the “guanxi” as a

useful way of doing business because the bond

between two individuals/enterprises gives benefits in

the long run (Marble and Lu, 2007). For example: a

supplier can always accept an emergency order if that

customer gives priority to that supplier when making

orders, even if it is not the best candidate. “Guanxi”

can be seen as a double-edged sword, as it can allow

profitable relationships for both of the actors/parties,

but it can also hinder them whenever individuals

sacrifice the best interest of the organisation to

maintain their personal relationship.

Chinese business affairs are governed by

personalism and high context communication

resulting in heavy reliance on informal (oral) rather

than formal (written) communication/interchange

(Martinsons and Westwood, 1997). This is highly in

contrast with the highly formalised, rule-based

approach of western ERPs. As an example, many

Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) system

implementations did not benefit the company because

they were only used as inventory recording systems

instead of being used as planning tools (Marble and

Lu, 2007).

The Chinese are affectionate to their way of doing

business and do not want to discard it in exchange of

the western one, just because the ERP does not

implement it (Marble and Lu, 2007). This could be

solved including the local business practices by

customization of the ERP system (but this may create

risk and hinder some benefits) (Marble and Lu, 2007).

In Chinese business culture, organisation is

strictly hierarchical (Lockett, 1988). In addition,

management is not accustomed to share information

with employees; consequently the scope and the

progress of a strategic project, like an ERP

implementation, are usually unknow to the

workforce.

Another aspect of the culture is that management

is inclined to act as a father figure to the employees

(Marble and Lu, 2007; Martinsons and Revenaugh,

1998). This means that management is perceived to

know what is best for the company and that

employees should just trust the top decision. The lack

of debate and questioning of the leader’s decision

only enforce the hierarchical position of the

management inside the organisation. Everybody

under the management lacks the organization “big

picture” and goals.

The responsibility is concentrated only in the

management position. This is taken to the extreme

where the employees do not have responsibility for

the result of their work (Martinsons and Revenaugh,

1998). As ERP makes people accountable for what

they do, this implies a strong culture resistance from

the bottom (Martinsons, 1996).

Chinese business culture views change differently

than western culture. The Confucian-derived model

of change is cyclical and continuous (Marshak, 1993).

The Chinese considers that movement and

tranquillity are complementary and occur in a

constant ebb and flow without reaching a specific or

stable end state (Martinsons and Revenaugh, 1998).

Because the culture of radical change is not rooted in

the Chinese culture, the past still has a great value and

causes a reluctant behaviour to change, hindering

innovation. In addition, Chinese employees do not see

ERP systems, and Information Technology (IT) in

general, as a way to do business. They tend to prefer

manual processes or old systems (Srivastava and Gips

2009; Liu et al., 2011) and see the ERP as a way to

automate current processes instead of a chance of

process improvement.

The language problem should not be overlooked.

Several authors highlight the necessity of providing

the system and the documentation in Chinese because

Western ERP Roll-out in China: Insights from Two Case Studies and Preliminary Guidelines

581

only a small part of the personnel is able to understand

English (Avison and Malaurent, 2007). Language

problem rises the need to adopt certain measures like

interpreters or local consultants to impart the training

to the user.

China business is characterized by a high degree

of collectivism (Hofstede, 1983), meaning that the

perception others have on someone has a significative

value inside Chinese society. The concept of “mianzi”

is one of the main constructs. “Mianzi” means “face”

in Chinese and describes one’s reputation or dignity

in social context. This translates into a culture that is

not prone to address error, especially in public. The

traceability of information and transparency of ERP

systems poses a threat to this social construct, because

the error of an individual can be displayed to the

entire organization. For example, ERP

implementation usually requires business process

reengineering (BPR), thus giving the impression that

something was wrong with how the business was

previously carried on, threatening the social position

of the management. Another possible implication of

the “mianzi” is the “Asian yes” (Avison and

Malaurent, 2007) that is the act of agreeing on

something or with someone only on the surface; for

example, “Chinese cannot explain their proper need:

calling attention to any problem of a business partner

is viewed as a direct insult” (Marble and Lu, 2007).

However, Chinese people could follow traditional

norms and value in some context, but also display

individualism and competitiveness in others (Leung,

2008). Chinese education system promotes

competition and hard work. University graduates are

extremely competitive because they strive for a better

position in society and materialistic achievement

(Leung, 2008). Many Chinese now crave for wealth

and status and struggle to reach their goals. An

example is employee turnover: from basically zero

turnover of state-owned enterprises, now the rate of

turnover has spiked to the 30% (Leung, 2008). This

because people tend to change often their job in

pursuit of higher remuneration and social status.

3 METHODS

Giving the exploratory nature of this study, a multiple

case study empirical research methodology was

adopted (Sousa and Voss, 2001). The sample was

composed by two Italian companies that have

completed in 2018 the roll-out of the ERP

implemented in their Italian headquarters in one

Chinese subsidiary. In both cases, the ERP system

implemented is SAP. Limiting the analysis to one

ERP brand ensures that the variation in the data is not

merely due to variation in the ERP system (Reimers,

2003). Different data collection methods were used,

including semi-structured interviews with roll-out

project’s team members and analysis of companies’

documentation. To conduct the semi-structured

interviews a guideline for the interviewer was

developed outlining the subjects to be covered, the

questions to be asked, and the specific data to collect

(Voss, Tsikriktsis, and Frohlich, 2002). The data

collected have then been analysed in order to identify

the main problems experienced by the case study

companies and the possible solutions to adopt.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Case A

Case A is an Italian multinational group leader in the

sector of automation. The Chinese division was

established in 1993 as a private venture between

Company “C” and a leading Chinese company in the

sector of automation. Since Case A has the objective

to reunite all the companies under the same ERP

system, it has started multisite phased roll-outs in all

its subsidiaries. The previous information system of

the Chinese subsidiary comprised two different

systems and lacked all the features of an ERP system.

The benefits expected from the Chinese roll-out were:

▪ Replication of the procedures and methods

adopted by the other companies of the group.

▪ Better control of the Chinese business unit from

the Italian headquarters.

▪ Allowing the upper management of the group

easier data analysis and cross check.

▪ Planning of the material with Material

Resource Planning (MRP) logic.

▪ The possibility of the “intercompany flow”, i.e.

automatic creation of a sales order in Italy

triggered by the creation of a purchase order in

China.

▪ Adoption of some custom SAP transactions of

the group.

▪ Automation of the billing process in

compliance with the Golden Tax System

(GTS), i.e. the Chinese electronic tax

administration system.

The actors involved in this project were the CIO

and the IT personnel of the headquarters, some

business people of the Italian company (like the sales

and purchase responsible), the staff of the Chinese

company (that represent the key users), the board of

directors of the group and external consultants from

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two different agencies. The project team was divided

by nationality and coordinated by two project

managers. The Italian team was responsible to fit of

the Chinese company practices to the ERP business

model, implement the system, issue the training,

provide the documentation and manuals, and support

the user during the change of system. The Chinese

team was responsible to provide the specifics of their

business processes, execute the BPR and learn the

logic of the new ERP system.

Difficulties related to national differences, like

taxation and legal issues, required the contracting of

SAP local consultants for the initial stage of the

project. High geographical distance was a problem

since the IT personnel of the Italian headquarters

could not follow the implementation project on-site.

Also the language was critical. Except some

executive staff members, the other Chinese users did

not speak English. Therefore, Chinese consultants

were contracted to issue training in mandarin.

Nevertheless, the users did not completely grasp the

logic behind the new business processes and the

request of new customisations were fragmented and

contradictory.

In addition, one week after the end of the project

preparation phase the majority of the Chinese

consultants left the project, causing several handover

issues and difficulties with users’ training.

Several technical problems arose during the final

preparation stage and also after the go-live, causing

manual corrections and losses of time. Furthermore,

the Chinese management requested last-minute

changes to the business model already tested and

approved. This is probably due to the Chinese habit

not to rush to solve problems, but to simulate

agreement first even if they do not understand or do

not agree upon something, and then do what they

think is right.

ERP system was seen as a mean to archive

operational transactions instead of using it as an

actual business empowerment tool: it was not rare

seeing an employee manually solve some problems

and then record the result in the ERP.

Nevertheless, the implementation project

respected the budget and planned deadline, and the

system was getting used correctly by the Chinese

users.

4.2 Case B

Case B is a multinational group that produces engine

components for tractors and bulldozers. The Chinese

division was a small start-up with around 30 workers,

all between 30 and 40 years old. The plant director

was Italian with more than 10 years of experience

working and living in China. The start-up before the

project did not have any IT personnel neither an

information system. Furthermore, accounting was

managed by a third party.

The start-up was organised on the same business

model of the Italian plant, so the roll-out project was

simplified, because it was not necessary to create a

new model and there was no need to perform a BPR.

The decision not to automate the billing process

in compliance with the GTS because of the scarce

volume of sales to Chinese customers saved time and

effort, and reduced the complexity of the project.

During the project some local consultants were

contracted, because a few users (i.e. production

workers) did not speak English, and Chinese

legislation was unknown to the Italian consultants.

The training was issued by local and Italian

consultants to the key users. The key users then issued

the training to the end-users. The training manuals

were make available for consultation months before

the go-live, but were entirely in English, because they

were the same from the previous international roll-

outs. Nevertheless, during the training period

significant problems did not arise. Translation related

to the system were minimal. It was planned to

translate only what was mandatory (e.g. accounting

items) and some print-outs for the production workers

that did not speak English.

The data conversion step was carried out

smoothly, thanks to the limited dimension of the

Chinese plant: low number of material codes and little

production. The only issue regarding data migration

was related to the financial part, but it was just due to

a miscommunication between the Chinese accountant

and the third party that managed their accounting.

Overall the project was on budget and on time and

the user accepted the new system without showing

resistance.

The fact that the start-up was comprised mainly of

young personnel with a good level of education led to

less resistance to change. That was facilitated also by

the lack of consolidated habits and previous

experiences of information system technologies.

The presence of a plant director that could speak

Italian and Chinese helped in the communication of

requirements, feedback and instructions, playing the

role of a bridge between the two cultures.

4.3 Comparison of the Cases

The two cases present some differences.

The Chinese subsidiary of Case B was modelled

after the headquarters business model and this

allowed to skip the BPR phase. This was probably

Western ERP Roll-out in China: Insights from Two Case Studies and Preliminary Guidelines

583

possible because of the relationship between the two:

the subsidiary was a recently founded start-up which

was entirely under control of the headquarters. This

allowed the replication of the models. Instead, for

Case A the lack of complete control on the subsidiary

and the presence of a Chinese company with half the

ownership brought the joint venture to develop

different business models than the Italian

headquarters. This required the Chinese division to

undertake a BPR to partially align itself with the

Italian business model.

The subsidiaries of the two companies have

different market targets: Case A’s subsidiary is

focused on Chinese customers, while Case B’s has to

deal with customers of different nationalities. This

might have impacted on two aspects: the first one is

the language and the other is the customisation of

ERP’s interface and forms. Having to deal with

international customers, Case B’s subsidiary

probably hired workers who already possessed good

competence in the English language. Instead, the

majority of Case A’s subsidiary customers are

Chinese and so competence in English language

might result not mandatory. Also, the fact that most

of the customers were Chinese required the

development of an interface for the GTS and some

print forms in Chinese for the customer, increasing

the workload compared to Case B.

Another aspect dealing with the language is the

role of local consultants: even if in both the projects

local consultants were contracted, in Case A they

were contracted to issue training in Chinese to the

majority of users and to provide support during the

go-live. Case A also experienced the defection of a

large number of local consultants, probably as a

consequence of the high employee turn-over rate that

is characterizing the Chinese enterprise (Leung,

2008). In Case B instead, the number of users who

could not speak English was small. Therefore,

Chinese consultants were principally contracted to

aid the users during the go-live support.

The Chinese culture did not play a relevant role in

Case B, while in Case A it created some difficulties

in terms of acceptance of the system as a way of doing

business and regarding the behaviour of the users

(“Asian yes”). This may be related to the interplay of

multiple factors: the nationality of the customers, the

history of the subsidiary, the mean age of workers, the

former IT tools.

4.4 Preliminary Guidelines

Based on the literature review and the main insights

from the case studies, a set of preliminary guidelines

for the management of a western ERP roll-out in

China are proposed in the following.

4.4.1 Strategy

The strategy for the roll-out must be defined during

the planning phase: a clear definition of the level of

customization (Mamoghli and Cassivi, 2019), which

modules will be rolled out, what are the benefits

expected form the project, what is the budget and time

committed to the project. Clearly identifying the

goals and the objectives helps the organization avoid

“scope-creep” and allows monitoring of the project.

Consider that customization could increase users’

acceptance (Light, 2005). However, customizations

of the system that were not planned should be

carefully analysed and accepted by the project

manager only if aligned with the planned goals and

objectives (Grabis, 2019).

4.4.2 Change Management

It is necessary to establish a change management

program to smooth the resistance to change of the

users caused by their different cultural background:

involving user in the project, training, creation of user

expectancy, shared documentations and use of

leadership to create an organizational culture

sympathetic to the ERP system.

4.4.3 Documentation

Having written documentation allows individuals to

remain up-to-date with the project: what are the

requests, what are the solutions that meet the requests,

and what are the changes to these solutions.

Documentation must be accessible to the interested

actors and updated keeping track of all changes.

4.4.4 Top Management

Top management should sponsor the project

throughout the organization increasing users’

involvement and commitment to the project. It can

also establish an incentive and prize program to

reward the project team’s members for the realization

of the project milestones, goals and objectives.

4.4.5 Team and Language

Communication is negatively influenced by the

differences in language between the headquarters and

the subsidiary. This complicates processes like

training (increased difficulty of the users to

understand the logic and how to use the system), the

request of changes (risk to misunderstand the requests

ICEIS 2020 - 22nd International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

584

of the users, and the answers of the project team) and

the BPR. Having project managers with different

cultures could be useful to by-pass the

communication barriers. One project manager could

be the company’s CIO, the other should be a

subsidiary’s key user with project management skills

or knowledgeable about that ERP system. In addition,

the possibility to implement an ERP system that

integrates the Chinese language decreases the

resistance of the non-English speaking users

(Malaurent and Avison, 2015).

Local consultants can be contracted to be part of

the project team and can provide useful information

regarding national regulation. They should also be

knowledgeable about the ERP system in order to help

to develop and test it. Local consultants could

improve the relation with the users by eliminating

communication barriers. It is recommended to link

their retribution to the results of the project and to

implement incentives to limit their turnover.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on a literature review and analysis of two case

studies, some preliminary guidelines to increase the

success of western ERP roll-outs in China have been

proposed. However, the small number of cases and

the fact that both companies were Italian limit the

generalisability of results. Additional roll-out cases

should be investigated, possibly including companies

from various western countries, to confirm the

validity of the preliminary findings and assess also

the possible impact of different national cultures.

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