A Multi-Level Analysis of the Effect of Institutional Power on User Resistance to Enterprise Systems

User resistance to enterprise systems (ES) has long been an important concern to corporations striving for system implementation success. Apart from ensuring the provision of a clear vision and sufficient resources, corporate executives in power must understand how they should (or should not) leverage their institutional power to manage and change user resistance. In this proposed study, by extending power-dependence theory to the system implementation context, we develop a multi-level research model to explain how institutional power affects user resistance. The model incorporates two key aspects of institutional power, coercive and reward power, by examining how they each directly affect user resistance and mitigate the adverse impact of IT-induced loss on user resistance. To this end, we have gained consensus from the senior management of a large commercial bank, who allows us to use the bank as the data collection site for the proposed study. We plan to test the model through a survey of users from 35 subsidiaries of the bank that have recently implemented an enterprise system. Data will be analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) technique. By extending power-dependence theory to the system implementation context, we anticipate the study contributing to the literature by enhancing our theoretical understanding on enterprise systems implementation success as well as generating managerial insights to guide future system implementation efforts.