Modeling the adoption of cloud computing to assess South African SMEs: An integrated perspective

Abstract

The adoption of cloud computing among SMEs in developing countries, particularly South Africa, is still very low. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model to assess the critical factors that influences South African SMEs to adopt cloud services. This paper proposes an integrated conceptual model that incorporates critical factors from the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, institutional theory, transaction cost theory, organisation theory, information security theory, and trust theories. Cloud computing adoption research dominated by the DOI perspective, can benefit from further cross- fertilization with different theories to explain and predict patterns of cloud services use in the SME context. This model is expected to offer deeper insights and practical value to SME decision makers, cloud service providers, regulatory agencies and government responsible for establishing cloud computing adoption strategies for SMEs in South Africa. We intend to apply this model to survey research in future studies.