Longitudinal Study of the Process of Adopting a Type-Erp System Using Mental Maps

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand how users' perceptions of a system change as they adopt it, we con- ducted a qualitative-longitudinal study of the case of three small restaurant owners who implemented ERP-type soft- ware in their businesses. Method: The methodology used was based on the use of mental maps as tools for visual/ numerical analysis. The data to create the maps were provided from the transcriptions of the owner's interviews. Find- ings show that at first, individuals focus mainly on the benefits of the new system, but as they adopt it, dissatisfac- tion with the technology arises. Although in postimplementation, the positive evaluation of the system outweighs the dissatisfactions, interestingly, the latter outweighs the former in the intermediate stages of implementation. This is a novel result because there are no studies that describe this phenomenon. At the methodological level, the use of mind maps for analysis is novel in the MIS literature and could continue to be used in other qualitative-longitudinal studies.