Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to investigate the key determinants of the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) in healthcare facilities in Kenya. To realize this, six specific objectives were pursued namely to determine the influence of technological characteristics on ERP system adoption in healthcare facilities in Kenya; to examine the influence of organizational characteristics on ERP system adoption in healthcare facilities in Kenya; to establish the influence of environmental characteristics on ERP system adoption in healthcare facilities in Kenya. Others were to analyze the influence of user characteristics on ERP system adoption in healthcare facilities in Kenya; to examine the joint influence of technological, organizational, environmental and user factors on adoption of ERP system in Kenya’s healthcare facilities; finally to investigate the moderating effect of ERP implementation strategies on the relationship between the technological, organizational, environmental and user characteristics on ERP system adoption in healthcare facilities in Kenya. The theories that underpinned this study include Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Dynamic Capability Theory.
The study applied positivism research philosophy and descriptive cross-sectional design with target population of 392 constituting of the executives of the healthcare organizations from level 4, 5 and 6 hospitals registered in the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board based on 2021 data base. A structured questionnaire that contained closed ended questions was used to collect data from the respondents. Data collected was analyzed using logistic regression analysis at a 95% confidence interval in order to examine significance of the relationships between the variables and to test the hypotheses. Analyzed data was presented using tables and figures for ease of interpretation.
The results show that technological characteristics positively and significantly influence ERP adoption among health care facilities in Kenya (McFadden R2=0.4135 and chi2=0.0330), the results also showed that organizational characteristics had positive and significant relationship with ERP adoption among health care facilities in Kenya (McFadden R2=0.2683 and chi2=0.0482) and also environmental characteristics having positive and significant influence on ERP adoption among health care facilities in Kenya (McFadden R2=0.3177 and chi2=0.0164). The study, however, shows that user characteristics though positively related to adoption of ERP system among health care facilities in Kenya, its influence is insignificant (McFadden R2=0.03904 and chi2=0.6253). The result further showed that the joint effect is significant (McFadden R2=0.2277 and chi2=0.0222) and finally ERP implementation strategies also had significant moderating influence on the relationship among the predictor variables and ERP adoption (McFadden R2=0.3872 and chi2=0.0201). The study thus concludes that all the predictor variables; technological characteristics, organizational characteristics and environmental characteristics are key in determining ERP system adoption among health facilities in Kenya except user characteristic with also the moderating role of ERP implementation strategies having a big role in the relationship. It is also concluded that jointly, the predictor variables are likely to play a huge and significant role in influencing ERP system adoption among health facilities in Kenya.
The study recommends that health facilities should take into consideration the advantages of ERP adoption to ensure they gain greater benefits from adopting ERP system and consequently would achieve competitive advantage over competitors. The study further recommends that senior management in health care facilities support is extremely important in provision of the necessary resources including technical expertise and infrastructure required to adopt ERP system if they are looking to create a competitive environment. The study also recommends that ERP vendors should provide to the top management of health care facilities awareness of the potential benefits of adopting ERP system since they play an important role as the implementation of ERP system which involve integration of resources, activities and the reengineering of certain processes within the facilities.