Abstract
This PhD thesis focuses on the implementation of an ERP in a group of small subsidiaries through a multi-cycle canonical action research conducted by the researcher, ERP project manager for two years. Subsidiaries face multiple challenges : deploying a standard ERP while preserving their flexibility, reconciling the group constraints and local constraints, making do with means at hand given the limited resources. This context is an opportunity to deepen the theory of bricolage, little mobilized in the ERP literature. The results show multilevel collective bricolage processes: intra-affiliates, inter-affiliates and group. These bricolage processes allow continuous improvement of the ERP and its appropriation, and ultimately lead to the design and use of solutions that are difficult to imitate, which generates a competitive advantage. These collective bricolage processes assume favorable initial conditions and an evolution from a constraining symbolic (standard ERP, best practices) to an enabling symbolic. Along the way, bricolage contributes to developing thecreative reservoir and capacities, which in turn increases the potential of bricolage, while simultaneously promoting technological and managerial innovations.