A configurational approach for IS appropriation in small enterprises

Studies dealing with the managerial practices allowing the IS appropriation within Small en-terprises (SE) are scarce (Fernley and Bell, 2006; Huang and Yasuda, 2016) and show the rel-evance of the bricolage theory for IS implementation in the Small Enterprise context (Ciborra, 2002; Fernley and Bell, 2006). Appendix A gives a summary of main bricolage practices iden-tified with in IS studies. Bricoleur's practices are based on repertoire (1), a key concept of bri-colage. However, other practices are also essential: assemblage and iteration (2), unplanned actions (3), and unclear outcomes (4). However, empirical studies allowing to identify the bri-colage practical modalities and set of practices as well as their organizational consequences when developing and using IS are still limited (Ferneley and Bell, 2006; De Vaujany, 2008). This research is in line with this gap and aims to explore the bricolage set of practices ("con-figurations or combinations") that enable small enterprises to achieve IS (ERP) appropriation. So we can formulate our research question as: what are the configurations of bricolage practices that allow an ERP appropriation within SEs ? Our study starts in an action research mode (Susman and Evered, 1978). The researcher joined for 2 years a familial group as an ERP project manager. Our Action research follows an itera-tive process of two cycles corresponding to the group roadmap for ERP diffusion within its small subsidiaries: (1) five ERP implementations in Spain and (2) the diffusion of the ERP within seven other affiliates in Europe as detailed in Appendix B. For each cycle, the design, results, and learnings are summarized in the Appendix C. The action research findings give many interesting results on the different bricolage practices used in each cycle. However, the complexity of findings generated from the action research stress the need for an analytical ap-proach, as QCA, that embraces causal complexity and offer a configurational analysis. QCA is therefore intended to be a complementary approach to traditional qualitative approaches (Ri-houx and Ragin, 2009). Our study aims to explain how the different bricolage practices com-bine (combination of practices and not list of practices as in the action research findings) for ERP appropriation. The research design is detailed in Appendix D. After data calibration (Appendix E, F) and truth table analysis (Appendix G), the FsQCA findings (Appendix H, I,J) reveal two configurations for ERP appropriation within SME sub-sidiaries. High levels of Repertoire constitution of existing resources (Levi-Strauss, 1966; Weick, 1993; Ciborra, 2002) is present in both configurations. However, this modality is nec-essary but not sufficient for achieving ERP appropriation; it is meaningful only when com-bined with assemblage and iteration practices (Configuration 1) or with unplanned actions and Unclear outcomes in case of new, unknown, or never seen situations (Configuration 2). In other words, Repertoire constitution practices appear to act as binding mechanism that enable small firms to transform their limited local resources to a device for ERP appropriation either in case of ‘stable' bricolage or improvisation configurations. In fact, in case of ‘stable' brico-lage configuration (planned and non-improvisational situations), assemblage and iteration are very important to allow an effective repertoire assembly and use. Planning is not always a break for bricolage, but it can be a mean to guide the bricolage (Baker and Nelson, 2005) and make it positive (Ferneley and Bell, 2006). Alternatively, in case of improvisation configura-tion, serendipity and emergent actions are important to enable the repertoire dialogue and use to be effective, as improvisation views action as a process of sensemaking that makes do with whatever materials at hand (repertoire and assembly) (Weick, 1993, 1998; Lanzara, 1999).