Hypothesis 1
We found significant, positive direct effects of system
effectiveness and Internet use on business results (Table 2),
consistent with Hypothesis 1. The effects of ERP usage and the
usefulness of the IT tools, though still significantly related to the
business impact of the SPMS, are less pronounced. These four
variables alone explain more than one third of the cross-sectional
variation in the impact on business results (adjusted R2=0.36,
significant at the 0.0001 level).
Hypothesis 2
SPMS system effectiveness (Table 3) is mainly explained by
the system design and information quality; the influence of the
collaborative management style is marginally positive. All three
variables, combined, lend support for Hypothesis 2, and explain
almost half of the variation in system effectiveness at .0001 level
of significance. Structure, size and scope were not significant in
explaining SPMS effectiveness.
Hypothesis 3
The usefulness of IT tools used in the SPMS (Table 4) was
found to be related only to systems variables (information
quality and system design), in partial support of Hypothesis 3.
None of the organizational variables (collaborative style, structure,
scope and size) were significantly related to the usefulness
of IT tools.
Hypothesis 4
The level of Internet usage (Table 5) is influenced by both
system (system design) and organizational variables (collaborative
style, scope and structure), as predicted in Hypotheses 4. However,
information quality and organization size did not have a significant
relationship with Internet usage. One possible explanation is that
Internet usage is, currently, necessary for all SPMS, regardless of
how large the business unit is, or the level of SPMS information
quality.
Hypothesis 5
ERP usage (Table 6) is significantly related to system design
and information processing requirements (size and scope),
but not to information quality or any information processing
variables (collaborative style and structure), in partial support of
Hypothesis 5. It seems that increased ERP usage is dictated by
the requirements imposed by large size and geographical scope
of the business unit, and not influenced by how the organization
makes decisions (decision-making style) or the quality of the
information provided by the SPMS.
Hypothesis 6
System design (Table 7) is significantly influenced by a
collaborative decision making style, and by organizational unit