The Evaluation of Business Performance in ERP Environments
ERP systems, supporting and integrating all business processes across functions and offering real time information necessary for taking actions and making decisions, have prevailed in most enterprises worldwide. The costs involved in ERP implementations may be huge and must be justified by the outcomes. However, extant research has reported mixed and in some cases controversial results. In this chapter, certain important dimensions of ERP systems and of business performance are discussed. The chapter has an educational focus and aims at providing an exploration of ERP system's impact on certain business performance dimensions, informing thus scholars, practitioners and students of the issues involved and the areas they should pay attention when considering ERP implementations. Following an extensive literature review, a classification of diverse studies according to their research focus is provided, which reveals the range of business performance dimensions and can help researchers in their future projects.