Cloud Computing (CC) is a paradigm shift with the potential of transforming the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. ICT is an integral part of all businesses, and CC helps in lightening the burden of massive ICT investments. Thus, it is essential to understand the factors that influence CC adoption. The purpose of this study is to identify and rank critical factors for CC adoption in the Indian context. The research has adopted mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative). Experts from 13 organizations (including 8 cloud service providers (CSPs) and 5 cloud service users (CSUs)) are interviewed. Content analysis is used to confirm existing factors and identify new factors in the Indian context. Qualitative analysis has identified four new factors, namely, ‘time to market’, ‘futuristic’, ‘resistance to change’ and ‘financial losses’ (arising from security and resource availability). The quantitative part of the research used analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) techniques to rank the factors. The analysis revealed ‘IT service cost’ and ‘time to market’ as the most critical factor through FAHP and AHP respectively. However, ‘organization size’ is reported the least critical for CC adoption through both the methods. The results also highlight divergence among the criticality of CC adoption factors using the two techniques. The study is very useful for CSPs and key decision-makers to understand the critical adoption factors and judiciously strategize for CC service promotions. It will also help users to wisely decide while making CC adoption decision.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to presents an analysis of geographically and disciplinary scattered academic publications of cloud computing (CC) research in information systems. This review aims to understand the research methodology, research frameworks and models, geographical distribution, trends, critical factors and causal relationships associated with cloud computing adoption (CCA).
Design/methodology/approach
Systematic-literature-review using natural language processing is conducted to explore the phenomenon. The relevant research studies are extracted from various online databases using quality-assessment-criteria.
Findings
The study is a novel attempt to highlight the differences in critical factors for CCA in different country-settings. Further, the research explores the causal relationships among the identified factors. The findings of this 12-year systematic-review contribute by aiding the providers and potential adopters to devise context-specific strategies for the penetration of cloud services and sound adoption decisions (ADs), respectively. The findings also highlight the prospective avenues of research in the domain for researchers. Using the in-depth analysis, conceptual frameworks have been proposed that can assist in exploring the pre-adoption and post-adoption of CC.
Originality/value
This study contributes to CCA research by providing holistic insights into the methodology, research framework and models, geographical focus, critical factors and causal relationships influencing the AD or intention. The review highlights the unexplored emerging research topics in the field of CCA for future research directions.
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