1 research outputs found
An empirical investigation of factors affecting cloud computing adoption among SMEs in the North East of England
PhD ThesisThe growing adoption of cloud computing is changing the way business
information systems are developed, scaled up, maintained and paid for. This not only
applies to large organisations, but also increasingly to small and medium-sized
businesses (SMEs). In particular, cloud computing promises to improve the reliability
and scalability of IT systems, which allows SMEs to focus their limited resources on
their core business and strategy. In the SME context, technology adoption and usage
decisions are influenced by many factors. Despite the extensive literature, there is still
limited research related to the factors which impact on SMEs' adoption of Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT) innovations. By adopting the Technological,
Organisational and Environmental (TOE) Model, this research project attempts to
conceptualise cloud computing adoption and to enhance understanding of the range of
factors affecting cloud computing adoption decision making in SMEs. This work
utilises both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to meet the research
objectives. This study proposes a conceptual framework of SMEs' adoption of cloud
computing. Before carrying out a survey to test this model, a preliminary empirical
study involving 15 SMEs in the North east of England was conducted in order to
specify the factors that can be included within the developed conceptual framework.
Our pilot study findings were fed into the second stage of our empirical study involving
184 SMEs in the North East of England. Among the factors examined, relative
advantage, uncertainty, innovativeness, and external computing support were found to
have significant influence on whether SMEs adopted cloud computing. These findings
have important implications and great value to the research community, managers and
ICT providers, in terms of formulating better strategies for cloud computing adoption.
The research model in this study can improve their understanding of why some SMEs
choose to adopt cloud computing services, while seemingly similar ones facing similar
market conditions do no