Factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing in small and medium enterprises

In spite of cloud advantages for small and medium enterprises SMEs to reduce their costs and improve their performance, they have not utilised it at the desired level. Therefore, this study seeks to provide a model for the adoption of cloud computing in SMEs based on technology, organisation, and environment TOE framework along with individual characteristics. The results show that relative advantage and compatibility in technological context, sensitivity of data and supporting infrastructure in organisational context, vendor support, competitive pressure and government support in environmental context, CEO trust, and CEO cloud knowledge in CEO characteristics are significant factors in cloud adoption. However, complexity and CEO innovativeness are not influential determinants. In addition, five top prioritised factors for moving to cloud are relative advantage, vendor support, competitive pressure, CEO trust, and CEO knowledge. This study is not only useful for SMEs in their adoption decision but also for researches in this subject.

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