Investigating the Role of Trust Dimension as a Mediator on CC-SaaS Adoption

Abstract

The public sector of Iraq has been struggling from poor management of resources and numerous difficulties that affect its governmental organization’s development, such as financial issues resulting from corruption, insecurity, and the lack of IT resources and infrastructure. Thus, cloud computing Software as a Service (CC-SaaS) can be a useful solution to help governmental organizations increase their service efficiency through the adoption of low-cost technology and provision of better services. The adoption of CC-SaaS remains limited in Iraqi public organizations due to numerous challenges, including privacy and protection, legal policy, and trust. Trust was found to be an effective facilitator in the adoption of innovation in cloud computing (CC) using the Technology Organization and Environment (TOE) model. However, from the original TOE, various relationships are not confirmed for the CC-SaaS extended model. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of the trust dimension as a mediator represented by (ability, integrity, and benevolence) on an organization that intends to adopt CC-SaaS using TOE. The study also aimed to investigate the effect of perceived intensity of civil conflict factors on adopting CC-SaaS, especially in the violence and conflict environment. To fill the existing knowledge gap, this study adopted the Diffusion of Innovation and TOE model to investigate the determinants of CC-SaaS among government organizations in Iraq. Thus, ten variables are categorized within four dimensions in the study model. Furthermore, trust is seen as a critical facilitator for successful adoption, which is particularly true as a user receives customized services provided by a third party. Hence, the study further modeled and empirically validated the mediating role of trust dimension. The data are collected empirically from a sample of 367 IT professionals. Obtained results disclosed that the effects of technology, organization, and environment variables were statistically significant and reveal that external support and compliance with regulation have no significant effect. Nonetheless, trust dimension was proven a substantial facilitator in CC-SaaS adoption.