Antecedents of resistance to enterprise systems: The IT leadership perspective

The objective of this study is to determine the resistance antecedents to enterprise systems. Thus, by reviewing the extant literature with respect to resistance behavior to information systems, a theoretical model containing the factors that influence user resistance behavior to enterprise systems was compiled. Then, via a web survey, 169 valid questionnaires filled out by Brazilian IT managers who had already implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were obtained. From there, the research drew on factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques to refine and test the proposed model. It was found that “systems” and “personal inclination” factors explain about 49% of the variance related to resistance to enterprise systems. The former factor reveals that the characteristics of the enterprise system to be implemented can lead to resistance to implementation per se, whereas the latter suggests that individuals with an inherent bias to resist change might make the implementation of a new ERP system difficult.