Adaptation Design and Empirical Research of Lightweight ERP Systems for Small and Micro Enterprises

Abstract

Against the global digital transformation of small and micro-enterprises (SMEs), the low adoption rate (<35% globally) and high failure rate (>60%) of traditional ERP systems have become bottlenecks for SME management upgrading. This study takes the “Qi Weijie” lightweight ERP system as the research object, conducts empirical analysis based on 15 SMEs across manufacturing, service, and retail sectors, and explores the influence mechanism of three core adaptation elements—scale adaptation, cost control, and ease of operation—on ERP application effects. A “Lightweight ERP Selection Scoring Model” with 10 quantitative indicators was constructed via Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and its prediction accuracy was verified (in-sample R² = 0.85, out-of-sample R² = 0.80). Empirical results show that: (1) Scale adaptation has a significant positive impact on ERP application effect (β = 0.65, p < 0.001), with functional module customization and architectural flexibility explaining 42% of the variance; (2) Cost control presents a significant negative correlation with application effect (β =-0.58, p < 0.001), and every 10% reduction in implementation and maintenance costs leads to a 15% increase in user acceptance; (3) Ease of operation is the most influential factor (β = 0.70, p < 0.001), accounting for 49% of the variance, and intuitive interfaces and simplified processes increase system usage frequency by 2.3 times. This study enriches the theoretical framework of ERP adaptation research from the perspective of SME resource constraints and provides a scientific decision-making tool for SMEs. Validated in Beijing Mint Information Consulting Co., Ltd.’s practice, it helped 12 of 15 sample enterprises achieve a 45% average improvement in management efficiency and a 30% average reduction in operational costs.