Modeling Academic ERP Issues and Innovations with AST

Academic/industry collaboration has the potential to change learning processes and improve outcomes by integrating resources and creating opportunities that are not otherwise attainable (Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). However, each institution’s culture and organizational objectives will influence the collaborative relationships developed as advanced information technologies (e.g. computer aided software engineering tools (CASE), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, serviceoriented architectures (SOA), business intelligence tools (BI), mobile computing, and systems producing “big data”) are adopted. The challenge is to facilitate mutual understanding and acknowledge distinctions in addressing each organization’s goals. The aim of these relationships is the appropriation of ERPs in an innovative manner that both enriches educational experiences and benefits industry. There are many quandaries associated with this phenomenon. How does the deployment of ERPs facilitate educational processes? To what degree should these resources be utilized? What tools and methods should be used? What is the role of the ERP vendor? Can academic independence be maintained? Without a framework to identify relevant variables, it is daunting to begin to assess the impact of varying degrees of adoption, identify effective processes of deployment, and move towards assessing costs and benefits. Though some frameworks address academic/ industry collaboration (Mead et al., 1999), few have considered the implications of ERPs on the evolution of inter-institutional collaborative relationships. This exposition augments a framework for understanding the forces at work when integrating ERPs into educational settings (LeRouge & Webb, 2002; LeRouge & Webb, 2005; Webb & LeRouge, 2009). This article first reviews adaptive structuration theory (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994) as the foundation for the academic/industry ERP collaboration framework (LeRouge & Webb, 2002). Secondly academic/ industry collaboration constructs and their relationships are discussed within the context of ERP systems. The article concludes with an integration of findings and issues from the research literature with the author’s recent five-year experience integrating ERP platforms into curricula in a college of business.