Antecedents of user satisfaction with ERP systems: mediation analyses

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of four important influencing factors on user satisfaction with an in-house developed ERP module in a large oil and gas company in Saudi Arabia. It explores whether communication campaigns, training, benefits, ease of use (EoU) are key antecedents of user satisfaction, and examine the mediating effects of EoU and benefits on satisfaction.

A questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of 104 ERP users who were actively engaged in the ERP system implementation process. The partial least square method was used to test the research model. Baron and Kenny’s approach was used to test the mediating effects.

The proposed research model explained 62.7 percent of the variance in ERP user satisfaction. The results showed that EoU fully mediates the relationship between the training and communications and the benefits. Both EoU and benefits fully mediate the relationship between training and satisfaction and partially mediate the relationship between communications and satisfaction.

The findings of this study imply that training programs and communication campaigns should be designed in such a way that foster the EoU and convey and convince the ERP stakeholders about the benefits and values of ERP systems.

This study extends the understanding of salient factors affecting the ERP satisfaction in a different setting, namely in an oil & gas industry of a developing country. Although academic research of ERP satisfaction is abundant, this study contributes to the field by examining the mediating effects which rarely tackled in the extant research studies.