The nature of the relationship between top management support, effective project management and success level of ERP projects: The case of pharmaceutical sector in Turkey

The implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) has been gaining much importance especially in developed countries since 1990's. The main purpose of this study is to examine the nature of the relationship between top management support, effective project management and the success level of ERP implementations in Turkish branches of multinational pharmaceutical companies. The study, which was designed for examining the main organizational factors of ERP projects, was a pioneer one in Turkey. Since the pharmaceutical sector was one of the economic sectors where ERP projects having been implemented more frequently, the research data were gathered from 9 Turkish branches of pharmaceutical MNC's which have already implemented at least one of the four major ERP software namely SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan and Oracle. The total number of the members of 9 organizations was 45 individuals who were involved in the implementation of ERP projects, were all included in the sample. In terms of the measurement of the success level of ERP projects, the variables of allocation of well-skilled employees and supporting ERP implementation to come over implementation barriers were the most powerful variables according to the results of the statistical analyses performed in this study. The direct participation of top management in implementation activities and top management support for project management in conflict resolution made the strongest contribution on effective project management. Furthermore, two main attributes of effective project management, establishment of effective communication and project champion which were able to explain almost two third of the variance in success level of ERP projects, deserved the attention in relation to the application of modern managerial mindset. The study indicated that ERP projects carried out in Turkish branches of multinational pharmaceutical companies could be more effective if the senior managers of organizations would provide a sustainable support during the implementation process, and project managers were involved as project champions. VUl