Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a Chinese small enterprise's failed attempt to adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) and to identify the critical success factors for these type of projects. Design/methodology/approach Information was collected through multiple site visits and semi‐structured interviews with key staff of the ERP project, as well as examination of relevant company documentations. Findings The study identified nine critical success factors and discussed how these factors affected ERP adoption in a small farming feed manufacturing company. Originality/value Considering very few ERP project failures are recorded in the literature and the majority of existing ERP research in China was in the context of large state‐owned or foreign‐invested companies, this paper represents an early effort to explore the reasons why ERP adoption failed in the case study company. It provides valuable lessons to Chinese small enterprises on some of the common pitfalls they may encounter when pursuing ERP.
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