Abstract
<p>Cloud computing services have been growing rapidly in recent years, with Dropbox, Apple iCloud and Google Drive being amongst the most established. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether there were moderator effects for cloud usage. Therefore, <em>Gender</em>, <em>Age</em>, <em>IT Experience</em>, and <em>Usage Context</em> were included as moderating variables. Theoretical backbone was an extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Herby, we investigated the UTAUT-determinants <em>Performance Expectancy</em>, <em>Effort Expectancy</em>, <em>Facilitating Conditions</em>, and <em>Social Influence</em> plus incorporated external factors <em>Attitude towards Use</em>, <em>Perceived Security Risks</em> and <em>Perceived Trust</em> into the research model.</p><p>Data was conducted via a web survey amongst internet users in Germany during October 2014. A total of 2135 panelists started the questionnaire with 2040 finishing. Data basis for the analyses was the number of cloud computing users (n=1047). Operationalization was tested using confirmatory factor analyses and causal hypotheses were evaluated by means of structural equation modeling. In addition, the critical ratios approach was applied to investigate moderating effects.</p><p>Firstly, the results show that extended UTAUT is a robust research model. In detail, Social Influence, Performance Expectancy Effort Expectancy, and Perceived Security Risks were shown to significantly impact Attitude towards Use cloud services. The combination of all constructs used accounted for 67.2% of the variances observed in users’ attitude and 82.4% in users’ intention to use cloud services. Secondly, we found the moderating effect for all factors investigated, particularly gender and IT experience were shown to significantly moderate attitude and behavioral intention to use cloud services.</p>
Highlights
Cloud Computing is an emerging technology and has already conquered the digital landscape
The results show that extended UTAUT is a robust research model with strong predictive power
Hypotheses were setup for direct and indirect effects. To answer these questions we developed and empirically validated a new research model by extending UTAUT with Perceived Trust and Perceived Security Risk as new factors plus integrated Attitude towards Use
Summary
Cloud Computing is an emerging technology and has already conquered the digital landscape. The network-centric content model allows a user to access data from any device connected to the Internet (Marinescu, 2013). We focused on cloud storages, file hosting services that allow users to sync files and later access them from a web browser or mobile device. The usage of cloud computing storage services like Dropbox, Apple iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive or ownCloud are widely-used in and have become common place in today's private and business related digital environments (Moryson & Moeser, 2015). Herby we developed and empirically validated a new research model by extending UTAUT with Perceived Trust and Perceived Security Risk as new factors. Our research addressed the question how the newly included factors influenced the core constructs of UTAUT
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