Confirmative Pressures in ERP Institutionalisation

In the normal progression of events, firstly the technology is implemented, and then it is assimilated in the organisation. Once its usage becomes routinized and embedded within the organisations' work processes and value chain activities, it leads to successful institutionalisation. Institutionalisation of technology, thus, is not a linear process, one that is independent of any organisational, cultural, technical, social, and environmental causes and effects that shape and reshape use of technology. Information system researchers, however, tended to limit their attention to the effects of the institutional environment (i.e., coercive, normative and mimetic pressure) on structural conformity and isomorphism, so they fail to study the role of other institutional contexts which affect technology implementation and institutionalisation in organisations. This paper, therefore, aims to fill this gap by introducing confirmative pressure as a new form of isomorphism among organisation and other sub-institutions. This paper presents an illustrative case study of ERP adopting organisation in Australia to show how various isomorphic mechanisms affect ERP implementation and institutionalisation process.