Determinants of microentrepreneurs' decision to start work on their own ERP software for the SME sector

The market of software targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is the market saturated with solutions, with a very high intensity of competition. Despite the advantage of large and medium-sized software suppliers, there are cases of IT micro-enterprises introducing their own Enterprise Resources Planning software (ERP) to this market. The aim of the research presented in this article is to gain knowledge about the factors motivating IT microentrepreneurs to start working on their own ERP software dedicated to SME, despite the existence of competitive solutions on the market, a high level of risk resulting from the complexity of the ERP software production process, and related needs for resources. This topic is the subject of two-stage research: the results of their first stage (qualitative research) are presented in this article, the second stage (quantitative research) will be launched in the second half of 2021. The topic taken up in the research concerns the important scope of IT microenterprises activities which sets the directions for the development of IT products for SMEs in the markets they serve and has not been previously explored. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://crativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of KES International.