The mediating role of organizational complexity between enterprise resource planning and business model innovation

Abstract

Almost anyfirm faces a change during its life that requires a redefinition of the business model to be moreinnovative, namely business model innovation (BMI) that designs an architecture to create, capture and delivervalue to customers in the marketplace and society. These changes are a great opportunity to improve revenueand costs, but the associated organizational complexity also has drawbacks, due to the set of interrelationshipsand linkages within thefirm. This situation could be even more relevant forfirms that implement EnterpriseResource Planning (ERP), due to the complexity of the software and also the difficult implementation process inthe organization. In order tofill this gap, this study analyses 104firms that have implemented ERP and dealsimultaneously with BMI. The research objective is therefore to test the role of organizational complexity be-tween ERP and BMI. Specifically, the aim is to test the mediating role of organizational complexity between ERPand BMI. Ourfindings reveal that organizational complexity mediates between ERP and BMI. Important im-plications for researchers and managers are provided to optimize ERP implementation so as to obtain a higherreturn on the costs and revenue associated with BMI.