Why Cloud? - A Review of Cloud Adoption Determinants in Organizations

Adoption of cloud computing in organizations is increasing at a rapid pace. It is expected that the majority of the organizations in industrialized nations will be using cloud services to some extent in the near future. In this review I categorize adoption factors utilized in the literature and identify determinants playing a key role in organizations’ decision to adopt cloud. I analyze both quantitative and qualitative evidence and code relationships between factors and adoption of cloud by systematically reviewing the literature. Findings show underrepresentation of the factors related to organization and external environment in cloud adoption literature. This study contributes a set of determinants of cloud adoption, which serves as a foundation for the future research and advancement of the theories in information systems field

Impact of Cloud Computing on Business Process Outsourcing - Case: Accounting in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Cloud computing is a model for providing on-demand access to a shared pool of computational resources in a cost-efficient and convenient manner, involving minimal interaction with the cloud provider. Within the last eight years cloud computing has evolved from a promising, emerging technology to a credible alternative for fulfilling organizations' IT needs. Previous research has addressed a variety of issues including cloud sourcing and implementation in organizations. However, there is a gap in our understanding when it comes to the implications of cloud-based information systems on business process outsourcing (BPO). The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the understanding of how the introduction of cloud-based-information systems affects BPO arrangements. The context of this research is professional business-to-business (B2B) services outsourcing by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). This setting is depicted as an outsourcing triangle, which includes a client company, a professional service provider, and a cloud-based information system. The four essays included in this dissertation investigate the implications of cloud computing from the perspective of the three sides of the triangle. The first essay seeks to understand factors behind cloud computing adoption in organizations. The second and third essays investigate the outsourcing patterns of client companies and BPO decision-making in the context of cloud-based information systems. Finally, the fourth essay addresses changes in the organization of professional service providers. The main theoretical contributions of the dissertation include (1) a revised cloud computing adoption framework, (2) a conceptualization of the outsourcing continuum, (3) an enhanced understanding of transaction costs in the cloud context, and (4) a framework of virtual organization for professional B2B service providers. For practitioners, this dissertation offers a set of guidelines for the implementation of cloud-based information systems in BPO arrangements, and the reorganization of work to suit the technology

How to Gauge the Relevance of Codes in Qualitative Data Analysis? - A Technique Based on Information Retrieval

Qualitative research has experienced broad acceptance in the IS discipline. Despite the merits for exploring new phenomena, qualitative methods are criticized for their subjectivity when it comes to interpretation. Therefore, research mostly emphasized the development of criteria and guidelines for good practice. I present an approach to counteract the issue of credibility and traceability in qualitative data analysis and expand the repertoire of approaches used in IS research. I draw on an existing approach from the information science discipline and adapt it to analyze coded qualitative data. The developed approach is designed to answer questions about the specific relevance of codes and aims to support the researcher in detecting hidden information in the coded material. For this reason, the paper contributes to the IS methodology with bringing new insights to current methods by enhancing them with an approach from another discipline

Understanding the Determinants of Cloud Computing Adoption for High Performance Computing

Within the complex context of high performance computing (HPC), the factors influencing technology adoption decisions remain largely unexplored. This study extends Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and Human-Organization-Technology fit (HOT-fit) theories into an integrated model, to explore the impact of ten factors on cloud computing adoption decisions in the HPC context. The results suggest that adopters and non-adopters have different perceptions of the indirect benefits, adequacy of resources, top management support, and compatibility of adopting cloud computing for HPC. In addition, perceptions of the indirect benefits and HPC competences can be used to predict the cloud computing adoption decision for HPC. This is one of the first studies in the information systems (IS) literature exploring the factors impacting the cloud computing adoption decision in the important context of HPC. It integrates two influential technology adoption theories and enhances understanding of the key factors influencing organizations’ cloud computing adoption decisions in this context

Longitudinal Study on the Expectations of Cloud Computing Benefits and an Integrative Multilevel Model for Understanding Cloud Computing Performance

Cloud computing, a term introduced ten years ago, has proliferated rapidly both in developed and developing economies. Benefit expectations have impacted the rapid usage increase of this technology. We investigated with a five-year longitudinal survey changes in the expectations regarding cloud computing. We also crafted an integrated multilevel model to understand how cloud expectations and cloud readiness influence cloud computing deployment and performance combined with five IT business value (ITBV) factors. We tested empirically the crafted hypotheses and the research model using survey data collected from approximately 200+200 randomly selected business and IT executives in 2014 and 2015. Empirical results confirmed that our research model explained approximately one half of cloud computing performance for both years

Impact of accounting process characteristics on accounting outsourcing - Comparison of users and non-users of cloud-based accounting information systems

Prior literature informs us that a company’s decision to outsource a business process depends on process characteristics such as how frequently the process is performed or how specific the assets required by the process are. In this article, we compare the effects of accounting process characteristics on outsourcing decisions across users of traditional and cloud-based accounting information systems (AIS). By focusing on outsourcing of accounting processes among small and medium sized enterprises, we investigate the effect of five business process characteristics (frequency, human asset specificity, uncertainty, information intensity, and need for customer contact) on the outsourcing decision. Our results reveal that process frequency has a weaker negative effect on the outsourcing decision among users of cloud-based AIS. This appears to contribute to users of cloud-based AIS outsourcing a larger variety of accounting processes. Compared to traditional AIS, the inherent properties of cloud-based AIS such as ubiquitous access, scalability, and integration seem to encourage users of cloud-based AIS to also outsource processes that are frequently performed

Quality of service acceptance model for cloud service in Palestinian higher education institutions

Cloud computing service has been found to be effective in increasing the capacity of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) since it delivers services through enhanced information technology capabilities. Quality of Service (QoS) in cloud service is considered a rapidly growing phenomenon to guarantee a high level of service and is identified as an essential aspect of service provision. Despite the importance of QoS, identifying the QoS acceptance factors by decision-makers for cloud based services in HEIs in Palestine has been a critical challenge. There are limited studies conducted on QoS acceptance factors from Technological, Organizational, Environmental and Human aspects, hence, this study addressed this gap and investigated potential factors influencing QoS acceptance by decision makers in the context of HEIs in Palestine. This study proposed a research model by combining Technological Organizational Environmental (TOE) framework and Human Organizational Technology (HOT) fit framework. The research model was developed through the factors identified through a comprehensive literature review. Seventeen hypotheses were developed and the significance of the relationship between the factors were investigated using a quantitative approach. A survey method using a paper-based questionnaire was employed to collect data from 267 decision makers in the target higher education institutions. The data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. The finding used to develop the QoS acceptance model facilitated the understanding of factors impacting QoS acceptance by the HEIs in Palestine. The results that indicated the most significant factors for QoS acceptance by HEIs in Palestine were Availability (P= 0.046, p-value = 0.002), Compatibility (P= 0.043, p-value= 0.001), Security Concern (P= 0.037, p-value= 0.006), and Relative Advantage (P= 0.046, p-value= 0.001), Vendor Support (P= 0.037, p-value= 0.025), Legal Issues (P= 0.068, p-value= 0.027) and Competitive Pressure (P= 0.064, p-value= 0.028). The results of this study and the proposed model would assist the practitioners in HEIs to better understand the importance of QoS acceptance in cloud service

Determinants influencing adoption of cloud computing by small medium enterprises in South Africa

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Information Systems (Coursework) at the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, June 2017Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are now recognized as the driving force behind most thriving economies. This is mainly attributed to the role they play in most economies in reducing unemployment and their contribution towards Gross Domestic Product. This means that SMEs should have the right resources to enable them to enhance performance. Choosing the right technology to support their businesses is one of the important decisions that SMEs should make. Understanding the benefits and challenges of different technologies is often a problem for most SMEs. One of the new technologies that has gained prominence in recent years is cloud computing. Even though the value associated with this technology has been widely researched especially for large enterprises, the rate at which SMEs adopt cloud computing still remains low. The purpose of this research sought to explore and describe the determinants influencing the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs in South Africa. The study used Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework as the theoretical lens in understanding the adoption of Could Computing phenomenon. Further, this qualitative exploratory and descriptive study used semi-structured interviews to collect data from five SMEs based in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, operating in different industries and belonging to the National Small Business Chamber. The main factors that were identified as playing an important role in the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs are, relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, awareness, trialability, culture, top management support, size, regulation and trade partner relationship. It is worth noting that there was not enough evidence that competitive pressure played a significant role in SME cloud adoption.XL201

Evaluating the factors that influence cloud technology adoption�comparative case analysis of health and non-health sectors: A systematic review

Cloud technology has brought great benefits to the health industry, including enabling improvement in the quality of services. The objective of this review study is to investigate the reported factors affecting the adoption of cloud in the health sector by comparing studies in the health and non-health sectors. This article is a systematized review of studies conducted in 2018. From 541 articles, 47 final articles were selected and classified into two categories: health and non-health studies; conclusions were drawn from the two sectors by comparing their effective factors. Based on the results of this review, the factors were categorized as technological, organizational, environmental, and individual. The results of this review study could be a beneficial guide to the health empirical research on cloud adoption. Individual domains have not been examined in health sector studies. Since the process of adoption of new technologies in organizations is time-consuming, due to the lack of managerial knowledge about the efficient factors, recognition of these factors by decision-makers while planning for cloud adoption becomes of great importance. The findings of this review study aim to help health decision-makers by increasing their awareness of the cloud and of the factors that impact decisions at both the organizational and individual levels. © The Author(s) 2019