A Study of the Sales Process of ERP Systems
Wasteful Management or Managing the Wasteful?
Agency TheoryEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP)OpportunismRelationship MarketingPrincipal-Agent TheoryManagement of enterprisesFöretagsledningManagementBusiness and Economics
A description and analysis of the sales process of ERP systems is presented; also the consequences for the parties involved are discussed. The chosen methodological basis is an inductive research design consisting of a case study based on interviews. The analysis of the empirical data is done with a proposed analytical framework. Based on the agency theory, the analysis is tightly knitted together with opportunism. There are three controlling factors: relationships (relationship marketing), contracts (principal-agent theory), and competition. Three results are proposed: First, two factors forms opportunism-safeguarding and fringe selling. Second, two possibilities of minimizing opportunism exist, the contract and the relationship, the former largely being overlooked, and the latter not being what it is thought to be. Third, there is a need for a feedback loop to correctly address opportunism.