MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
-----

Phan, Thi Bao Quyen

A DEVELOPMENT OF
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE
PLANNING SUCCESS MODEL
FOR ACCOUNTING
PROFESSIONALS

A DOCTORAL THESIS

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
-----

Phan, Thi Bao Quyen

A DEVELOPMENT OF
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE
PLANNING SUCCESS MODEL
FOR ACCOUNTING
PROFESSIONALS
Major: Accounting
Code: 9340301


acknowledge the supports I have received from the School of Accounting at University of
Economics Ho Chi Minh City. I would like to thank Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Xuan
Hung and Dao Tat Thang for facilitating me completing the PhD thesis on time.
I would like to thank my colleagues in Accounting Information System Division for their
encouragement during my PhD journey. I would like to give a special thank to Dr. Nguyen
Phuoc Bao An for providing me constructive feedback and making me trust myself that I am
capable to finish this stressful research project. I also would like to thank Dr. Nguyen Bich
Lien for her comments on system-use concept of the ERP success model for accounting
professionals, which is a motivation for discovering a more appropriate system-use concept in
the ERP ongoing context. In my daily work, I would like to thank Dr. Luong Duc Thuan, Dr.
Pham Tra Lam, Nguyen Quoc Trung and Nguyen Huu Binh for supporting me to perform
lecturing-tasks in order to facilitate my researching.
I am so grateful to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu for her enthusiasm for my research-method-relatedqueries. I would like to acknowledge the advices and the comments on how to effectively
adopt the Smart-PLS software to analyze the collected data from Dr. Nguyen Phong Nguyen. I
really appreciate his experience of such a useful tool. I would like to thank the help of Dr.
Trinh Hiep Thien for his assistance in distinguishing between reflective and formative
constructs. I also would like to thank Nguyen Thao Nguyen for her counseling on
confirmation factor analysis.


iii

My thanks also go to academics from UEH and informants from participant organizations that
have assisted me to complete the pre-testing, pilot testing and main survey, whose names
cannot be disclosed owning to confidentiality agreements.
I would like to thank my brothers and sisters, as well as my friends, in particular, Phan Quoc
Hieu, Dr. Pham Thanh Ha, Phan Quoc Lan, and Nguyen Thi Thu Nguyet. Their help, support,
and friendship keep me balance every up and down moment and make the completion of this
thesis more interesting and enjoyable instead of pressure only or sometimes boringness.
I give special thanks to my parents, especially my wonderful mom, who have always stayed


ABSTRACT

XII

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1

1.1 Chapter introduction

1

1.2 Background of research
1.3 Motivations for research
1.3.1 Motivation 1 - ERP research
1.3.2 Motivation 2 – Behavioral Accounting Research (BAR)
1.3.3 Combination of ERP research and Behavioral Accounting research (BAR)
1.4 Research objective
1.5 Research questions
1.6 Justification
1.7 Methodology
1.8 Research scope
1.9 Thesis structure
1.10 Chapter summary
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

1
2
2

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3.1 Chapter introduction

49


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3.2 Theories used in the ESMAP
3.2.1 D&M IS success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992)
3.2.2 IS-continuance theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001)
3.2.3 Principle “fitness for use” (J. M. Juran, 1988)
3.2.4 How to combine three theories to form the ESMAP
3.3 Conceptual ESMAP, construct conceptualization and hypotheses
3.3.1 Conceptual ESMAP
3.3.2 Relationships among constructs of organizational-level impacts

4.5.3 Data collection
4.6 Ethical considerations
4.7 Chapter summary
CHAPTER 5 DATA ANALYSIS

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75
80
81
82
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5.1 Chapter introduction

83

5.2 Step 1: Data preparation
5.2.1 Data screening and cleaning
5.2.2 Straight lining check
5.2.3 Testing for outliers
5.2.4 Bias Tests
5.2.5 Section summary

6.2 Descriptive findings
6.3 An overview of the relationship between accountant performance and organizational
performance
6.3.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of organizational performance

124
128
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6.3.2 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of accountant performance
6.3.3 Discussion on direct impact of accountant performance on organizational performance
6.4 Use and its outcomes
6.4.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of use
6.4.2 Discussion on appropriateness of effective use in the ERP context
6.4.3 Discussion on direct impact of effective use on accountant performance
6.4.4 Additional discussion on indirect impact of effective use on organizational performance
6.5 Satisfaction and its outcomes
6.5.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of satisfaction
6.5.2 Discussion on direct impact of satisfaction on accountant performance
6.5.3 Additional discussion on direct and indirect impact of satisfaction on organizational
performance
6.6 System quality and its direct impacts on use and satisfaction
6.6.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of system quality
6.6.2 Discussion on direct impact of system quality on use
6.6.3 Discussion on direct impact of system quality on satisfaction
6.7 Information quality and its direct impacts on use and satisfaction
6.7.1 Discussion on organizations’ perceptions of information quality

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7.1 Chapter introduction

149

7.2 Research questions revisited
7.2.1 How is the ERP success model for accounting professionals formed in order to improve
accountant performance, which in turn enhances organizational performance?
7.2.2 How is the ERP success model for accounting professionals (ESMAP) validated?
7.3 Contributions of the study
7.3.1 Theoretical contributions
7.3.2 Practical contributions
7.4 Limitations of the study and area for further research
7.5 Delineations and further research
7.6 Final concluding remarks
LIST OF PAPERS

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Appendix 4.1 Advantages of using survey method in the current study
190
Appendix 4.2 Identifying formative and reflective constructs
191
Appendix 4.3 Evidence in relation to the expert panel’s feedback on the preliminary questionnaire
193
Appendix 4.4 The original Part A of the preliminary questionnaire
195
Appendix 4.5 A summary of changes in Part B of the preliminary questionnaire after analyzing
feedbacks from the expert panel
195
Appendix 4.6 The questionnaire after pre-testing
196
Appendix 4.7 Questionnaire translation process in the current study
200
Appendix 4.8 List of interviewees and demographic information
201
Appendix 4.9 Pilot study responses from three target informants
202
Appendix 4.10 The Vietnamese questionnaire after pilot testing
203
Appendix 4.11 Bias issues consideration and how to minimize them
207
Appendix 4.12 Sample size Calculator v2.0 for Cronbach’s Alpha Test
210
Appendix 4.13 The result of calculating the minimize sample size by G*Power software

Appendix 5.12 Cross-factor loadings
239
Appendix 5.13 Internal consistency and convergent validity results of the first order factor
“PAB_operational” after eliminating indicator PAB18
240
Appendix 5.14 Decision-making process for keeping or deleting formative indicators basing on outer
weight and outer loading Hair Jr et al. (2014)
241
Appendix 5.15 Results of alternative models analysis
242
Appendix 6.1 Demographic characteristics of surveyed companies
245
Appendix 6.2 Demography characteristics of ERP system
246
Appendix 6.3 Demographic characteristics of informants
247
Appendix 6.4 Comparing sample means
248
Appendix 6.5 Testing the D&M IS Success model (1992) without PAB
251
Appendix 7.1 Practical implications for ERP adoption organizatons’ stakeholders
252


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ABBREVIATIONS
AP
AVE
B2B

UEH
VAF
VIF

Accountant Performance
Average Variance Extracted
Business To Business
Business To Customer
Behavioral Accounting Research
Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Common Factor Model
Chief Finance Officer(s)
Composite Reliability
Critical Success Factor(s)
Delone And Mclean
Exploratory Factor Analysis
Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Systems
ERP Success Model(s)
ERP Success Model For Accounting Professionals
Extent Of Use
Extended Use
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio
Information Qualilty
Information System
Information Technology
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Test
Manufacturing Resource Planning


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Table 2.8: Advantages of the ESMAP ..................................................................................................................... 48
Table 3.1: Differences among the training, adoption and ongoing use contexts (adapted from Deng et al.
(2004))........................................................................................................................................................... 56
Table 4.1: Conceptualization of the constructs ......................................................................................................

67

Table 4.2: Indicators of System Quality ..................................................................................................................

68

Table 4.3: Indicators of Information Quality .......................................................................................................... 68
Table 4.4: Indicators of Perceived Accounting Benefit ..........................................................................................

69

Table 4.5: Indicators of Use ....................................................................................................................................

69

Table 4.6: Indicators of Satisfaction ....................................................................................................................... 70
Table 4.7: Indicators of Accountant Performance .................................................................................................

71

Table 4.8: Indicators of Organizational Performance ............................................................................................



x

Table 5.16: VAF values of each mediator model............................................................................................... 113
Table 5.17: Results of specific indirect effects.................................................................................................. 114
Table 5.18: Results of PLS-MGA for ERP implementation and post-implementation organizations...................115
Table 5.19: Results of PLS-MGA for large-sized and small-and-medium-sized organizations............................. 116
Table 5.20: Results of PLS-MGA for popular and non-popular-ERP-packages-adopted organizations................116
Table 5.21: Results comparison among models................................................................................................ 117
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Table 5.22: Results of the adjusted R value between the ESMAP and the parsimonious model...................... 119
Table 5.23: Impacts of omitting information quality to use.............................................................................. 120
Table 5.24: Impacts of omitting information quality to satisfaction.................................................................. 121
Table 5.25: A summary of significant total effects among constructs and significant difference of several paths
in the ESMAP......................................................................................................................................... 122
Table 6.1: Comparison of Variance Explained among three models................................................................. 132
Table 6.2: Summary of PAB's operationalization.............................................................................................. 142
Table 6.3: Summary of the current PAB construct's advantages (in comparison with the original PAB of Kanellou
and Spathis (2013))................................................................................................................................ 143


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Different management software types adopted in organizations in Vietnam...................................... 2
Figure 1.2: The number of publications on "ERP" in Google Scholar by year........................................................ 3
Figure 1.3: Accounting value chain (Hunton, 2002)............................................................................................. 7
Figure 1.4: Research question hierarchy............................................................................................................ 13
Figure 1.5: A systematic procedure for designing the ESMAP............................................................................. 18


ABSTRACT
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is commercial software that automates and
integrates many or most of a firm’s business processes. It allows to access to integrated data
cross the entire enterprise according to real-time (Davenport, 1998). Therefore, ERP system is
expected to increase productivity via processes standardization, to improve decision-making
ability via information integration throughout the whole enterprise, to enhance cooperation
between organizational entities by connecting them smoothly, and the most important, to
maintain competitive advantage once these benefits are satisfied (Davenport, 1998). These
promises are possibly a close explanation of its increasing popularity. Namely, Fortune 500
1

companies are trusting ERP system and it is also a solution that large-sized organizations in
2

Vietnam select and adopt more growingly .
Nevertheless, instead of achieving impressive benefits from their ERP systems, some firms
have faced difficulties in gaining the benefits they expected. Therefore, as suggested by
Markus and Tanis (2000), for both researcher and executives, one of the initial interestedquestions is whether investments in ERP will pay off. Several organizational-level
econometric studies conducted (M. C. Anderson, Banker, & Ravindran, 2003; Hitt, Wu, &
Zhou, 2002) give an answer that it is likely yes – on average. However, the impacts vary from
enterprise to enterprise, even from module to module (Nicolaou, 2004a) in which accountingrelated modules are in charge of changed-focuses. Kanellou and Spathis (2013) perform the
relevant literature and conclude that ERP implementation has a considerable impact on
accounting department of the business organizations. Hence, the executives’ next questions
are probably to be, how can I maximize the positive impacts on accounting department? Is
there some way to predict what the ultimate impacts of ERP systems on accounting
professionals will be in order to achieve a goal of enhancing organizational performance?
These questions are worth addressing. In attempting to do so, the author draws on D&M IS
success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992), IS-continuance theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001) and
the principle “fitness for use” (J. M. Juran, 1988) to develop the ERP success model for

The purposes of this chapter are to describe a broad overview of the research, generally
present methodology, and introduce forthcoming chapters. This chapter begins with research
background, and moves on a discussion on two main motivations for research, which focus on
explanation what research topic is and why to choose it. Identifying research topic is very
important as it allows limiting the scope of reviewing a literature. The research objective and
research questions are then addressed in the third and forth part of this chapter. Next, section
five of this chapter represents research justification to make clarify the significance of the
study. Subsequently, research methodology is outlined to enable to image how to conduct the
whole dissertation, and followed by research scope. Finally, the thesis structure will be
proposed, providing description of the six forthcoming chapters of this thesis.
1.2 Background of research
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is one of the most popular forms of IT for
businesses at present. Deriving from efforts to rationalize lead times and possession stock
costs, the 80’s manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) is developed into ERP system
considered as the standard that integrates business processes throughout the organization,
which in turn enhances operational efficiency (Akkermans, Bogerd, Yücesan, & Van
Wassenhove, 2003; Davenport, 1998). Callaway (1999) states that the ERP system promises
to achieve benefits in both tangible (e.g., reduced personnel, inventory, IT and procurement,
transportation, and logistic costs; improved cash flow management, revenue and profits) and
intangible (e.g., increased visibility of corporate data, speed of decision making, and control
over global business operations; improved customer responsiveness and business processes)
manner.
Such those benefits push business organizations towards adopting the ERP systems
(Davenport, 1998; Ifinedo, Udo, & Ifinedo, 2010; Vincent A. Mabert, Soni, &
Venkataramanan, 2003). This has been proved by tremendous expansion of the worldwide
ERP applications market for the last ten years. Its revenue, about $38 billion in 2008 (Ifinedo,
Rapp, Ifinedo, & Sundberg, 2010), has grown more than twice to approach nearly $82.2


2

the most popular business-management-applications in organizations all over the world and
begins to be increasingly adopted in Vietnam.
1.3 Motivations for research
1.3.1 Motivation 1 - ERP research
With respect to a boom in ERP-adopted business organizations, research in the ERP has also
increased over the past years. To acquire how the growth of publications about ERP is, the
Google Scholar database is scanned for the term “Enterprise Resource Planning” in the period
4

1990-2016. The results of this searching are summarized in following bibliometric graph (see
Figure 1.2). This graph reveals the growing interest in ERP over the past 26 years.
Accordingly, ERP (although a little decrease) is still a prominent field in the research
community, with about 6000 search results on average in the 2009-2016 period (Google
2017).

3 These figures are quoted from the Allert Pang’s report (December 1
th

st

2017) that is posed on website Apps

Run The World. Retrieved September 18 2018 from https://www.appsruntheworld.com/top-10-erp-softwarevendors-and-market-forecast/
4Bibliometrics is statistical analysis of bibliographic data; commonly focusing on citation analysis of research
output and publications, i.e. how many times research outputs and publications are being cited (Leeds University
Library 2017)


3



Among ten topics above, ERP critical success factors (CSFs) has been the most prolific area in
early ERP research (Grabski, Leech, & Schmidt, 2011). The reason of this may be that ERP is
very expensive, complex system, impacts the entire organization, and if it fails, it seems likely to
contribute to the failure of the firm itself (J. Scott, 1999). Moreover, many adopting enterprises
realize that the deployment of such systems is not as effective as expected (E. T. G. Wang, Shih,
Jiang, & Klein, 2008). Critical success factors (CSF) have thus constituted few things that must
go well to ensure success of an organization (Boynton & Zmud, 1984).

CSF is investigated to identify essential areas of concern and provides measures that would
aid in managing those areas (Boynton & Zmud, 1984). The CSF researches have typically
addressed several different issues. In most cases, typical CSF studies have consistently
identified a set of core factors critical to the success of ERP implementations including top
management support, the implementation team, organization-wide commitment to the system,


4

and fit between the ERP systems and the firm (Finney & Corbett, 2007; Hong & Kim, 2002;
Murray & Coffin, 2001; Ross & Vitale, 2000; J. E. Scott & Vessey, 2000; Somers & Nelson,
2001; Somers & Nelson, 2003; Stefanou, 2000). In other cases, some papers have found that
firm size is also an important factor related to ERP implementation success (Bernroider &
Koch, 2001; Buonanno et al., 2005; Vincent A. Mabert et al., 2003; Muscatello, 2003; Snider,
da Silveira, & Balakrishnan, 2009).
Alternatively, rather than focusing on identifying the factors critical for success in
implementing ERP system, the few researchers are interested in building ERP success models
as untypical CSF studies. For instance, H.-Y. Lin, Hsu, and Ting (2006) develop an ERP
success model upon the DeLone and McLean’s (1992, 2003) information system success
model. Lin et al.’s (2006) model relates the individual impact to balanced scorecard measures
(i.e., financial effectiveness, customer effectiveness, internal business effectiveness, and

Finney and Corbett (2007) lament the fact that most of recent ERP CSF research (both typical
and untypical CSF type) has generally taken from a macro perspective or a view of multiple
top mangers, the perspectives of key or single stakeholders are often missing. This proves that
CSF research potentially still lies in either micro-level or target-level approaches. Likewise,
Grabski et al. (2011) suggest that ERP research has yet to sufficiently investigate some issues
such as how ERP influences stakeholders in accordance with stakeholders’ insights; or
whether stakeholders’ performance can be effectively improved in organizations adopting
ERP; or even whether the perceptions of stakeholders on the ERP system can enhance the
organizational performance of adopting enterprises. To put it in other way, to comprehend
positive impacts of the ERP system on stakeholders, a question is whether there is a model
guiding stakeholders how to adopt ERP successfully in order to contribute to increasing
organizational performance from stakeholders’ perspectives themselves.
For these reasons, it could be concluded that in terms of ERP research, a call for developing a
model measuring ERP success from stakeholders’ perspective has been established for recent
years.
1.3.2 Motivation 2 – Behavioral Accounting Research (BAR)
Behavioral accounting research (BAR) or behavioral research in accounting is defined as the
study of accounting professionals’ behavior or non-accountants’ behavior influenced by
accounting functions, and/or report system, and/or creating accounting information (Hofstedt
& Kinard, 1970).
Since the late twentieth century, BAR have drawn increasing attention from accounting
researchers, academics and international community (Nowak, 2016 ). In the early stage of
BAR, Birnberg and Shields (1989, pp. 41-61) extract five accounting-related schools of
behavioral research, namely:
(1) Managerial control – designing and implementing control system for staffs and firm;
(2) Accounting information processing – guiding users how to gather, process, store, and
create accounting information;
(3) Accounting information system design – concerning behavioral issues when conducting
to design information system of business organizations.
(4) Auditing-related-issues research – i.e., decision-making behavior of auditors

individual, independent group (10.74%) in recent years (Tin et al., 2017). The evidence points
to the fact that a call for the ‘study of accountants’ is real and vital.
Not only choosing study of accountants as a response to its call, this study intends to focus on
it because of the increasingly dramatic change of accountants’ roles and functions in ERP
environment. For example, Sayed (2006) emphasizes that the traditional accounting role in
IS-adopted organizations is declining. However, rather than a threat, he provides evidence that
accountants exploit the ERP system as an occasion where their skills and their accounting
knowledge are represented. Likewise, Newman and Westrup (2005) indicate that accountants
should be considered as subjects that need to be paid more attention to as the relationship of
accountants and the ERP system has become more increasingly intertwined. This relationship


7

is confirmed via the findings of their survey in which about 83% of those who have some
experience of the ERP system choose the statement ‘the ERP system have positive effects on
management accountants’ in comparison with a total of 55% interviewees agree with the
statement ‘the ERP system have positive effect on organizational performance’ when being
required to give opinions about perceived effects of the ERP systems on organizations and on
management accountants. According to these statistics, there is no denial that users who
experience the ERP system easily recognize the impacts of ERP system on management
accountants, rather than on organizational performance. Moreover, their respondents (senior
accountants) concede that the ERP system is as a positive development enabling them to be
more focused on financial management and less on bookkeeping aspects. Furthermore, rather
than being changed their role by the ERP system only, accountants, in contrast, also influence
the design of ERP systems. For example, in ERP pre-implementation stage, when questioning
vendors about features that are supported by their packages, the focus of questions is often on
whether certain techniques such ABC and the balanced score card could be supported by their
product (Newman & Westrup, 2005).
Another reason explaining why a school of ‘study of accountant’ is chosen in this thesis is due

operations likely leads to appearance of externalities, which in turn creates new works
for accountants. For example, they need to monitor, control the flows of information
and protect the privacy, confidentiality and security rights of related parties. These
requirements undoubtedly put pressure on accounting experts, but, on the other hand,
propose opportunities for them to add more value to their companies.
(3) Providing assurance: Not only adding value impossibly-replaced to organizations,
accounting professionals also provide assurance for managers, investors, and societies
via auditor’s opinion regarding the fairness on and off financial reporting.
(4) Internal value of accounting systems: Drawing on data integration feature of some IS
(especially ERP system), accountants conduct to process data, and create useful
decision-making information more quickly, reliably and relevantly.
To sum up, this thesis focuses on “study of accountants” due to its increasing concern in BAR
literature; the more growingly intertwined relationship between accountants and ERP system;
and their valuable contributions in IS-adopting business organizations.


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1.3.3 Combination of ERP research and Behavioral Accounting research (BAR)
Combination of ERP research and BAR is essential and timely because ERP is a
transformative force on the accounting. In reality, because of its accounting benefits, ERP
requires accounting expertises to change their role in order to make broader contribution to
the company, such as reporting on non-financial measures, auditing information systems,
implementing management controls within information systems, and providing management
consulting services (Grabski et al., 2011). Therefore, the thesis will combine ERP CSFs
research with the study of accountants.
Given research gaps related ERP research and BAR, a research topic is formulated. That is to
discover how to assess ERP success for accounting professionals from accounting
professionals’ perspective themselves, in simple terms, developing an ERP success model for
accounting professionals (ESMAP).