Why end-users move to the cloud: a migration-theoretic analysis

This study presents and empirically validates a model of end-user migration from client-hosted computing to cloud computing. Synthesizing key findings from IT adoption and post-adoption research, switching research, and cloud computing studies, it builds an integrative framework of cloud migration using migration theory as a theoretical lens, and postulates interdependencies among these predictors. A longitudinal survey of Google Apps adoption among student subjects in South Korea validates our proposed model. This study contributes to our nascent body of knowledge on IT migration by drawing attention to this emerging phenomenon, demonstrating how migration research is different from IT adoption research, identifying salient factors that enable or hinder cloud migration, elaborating interdependencies between these different predictors, and bringing in migration theory as a referent theory to the information systems literature.

[1]  Kevin C. Desouza,et al.  Post-Adoption Switching Between Technology Substitutes: The Case of Web Browsers , 2006, ICIS.

[2]  Wei-Wen Wu,et al.  Developing an explorative model for SaaS adoption , 2011, Expert Syst. Appl..

[3]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Security concerns of system users: A study of perceptions of the adequacy of security , 1991, Inf. Manag..

[4]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Understanding and Mitigating Uncertainty in Online Exchange Relationships: A Principal-Agent Perspective , 2007, MIS Q..

[5]  Elena Karahanna,et al.  Shackled to the Status Quo: The Inhibiting Effects of Incumbent System Habit, Switching Costs, and Inertia on New System Acceptance , 2012, MIS Q..

[6]  Daniele Catteddu,et al.  Cloud Computing: Benefits, Risks and Recommendations for Information Security , 2009 .

[7]  Thomas Hess,et al.  Drivers of SaaS-Adoption – An Empirical Study of Different Application Types , 2009, Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng..

[8]  V. Kavitha,et al.  A survey on security issues in service delivery models of cloud computing , 2011, J. Netw. Comput. Appl..

[9]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models , 1989 .

[10]  A. Adam.  Whatever happened to information systems ethics? Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea , 2004 .

[11]  Sung S. Kim,et al.  Out of Dedication or Constraint? A Dual Model of Post-Adoption Phenomena and its Empirical Test in the Context of Online Services , 2009, MIS Q..

[12]  C. Ranganathan,et al.  Switching behavior of mobile users: do users' relational investments and demographics matter? , 2006, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[13]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[14]  Shirley Taylor,et al.  Decomposition and crossover effects in the theory of planned behavior: A study of consumer adoption intentions , 1995 .

[15]  CHRISTOPHER W. TAYLOR,et al.  A Publication of the Association of Management A STUDY OF STUDENT USE OF CLOUD COMPUTING APPLICATIONS , 2011 .

[16]  Eric N. Wiebe,et al.  Cloud computing adoption and usage in community colleges , 2011, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[17]  Clinton E. White,et al.  The Information Center Concept: A Normative Model and a Study of Six Installations , 1987, MIS Q..

[18]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[19]  Susan M. Keaveney,et al.  Customer switching behavior in online services: An exploratory study of the role of selected attitudinal, behavioral, and demographic factors , 2001 .

[20]  Ronald T. Cenfetelli.  Inhibitors and Enablers as Dual Factor Concepts in Technology Usage , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[21]  Anol Bhattacherjee,et al.  Understanding Information Systems Continuance: An Expectation-Confirmation Model , 2001, MIS Q..

[22]  David L. Mothersbaugh,et al.  Why customers stay: measuring the underlying dimensions of services switching costs and managing their differential strategic outcomes , 2002 .

[23]  James G. Morris,et al.  Research Note - Online Users' Switching Costs: Their Nature and Formation , 2012, Inf. Syst. Res..

[24]  R. Kirk.  Practical Significance: A Concept Whose Time Has Come , 1996 .

[25]  Anol Bhattacherjee,et al.  Understanding Post-Adoption Behavior in the Context of Online Services , 1998, Inf. Syst. Res..

[26]  Richard E. Potter,et al.  The Role of Habit in Post-Adoption Switching of Personal Information Technologies : An Empirical Investigation The Role of Habit in Post-Adoption Switching of Personal Information Technologies : An Empirical Investigation , 2012 .

[27]  P. Bentler,et al.  Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1980 .

[28]  John Lim,et al.  Cyber Migration: An Empirical Investigation on Factors that Affect Users' Switch Intentions in Social Networking Sites , 2009, 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[29]  C. Delbruck,et al.  [The theory of migration]. , 1993, Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik.

[30]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[31]  Lorin M. Hitt,et al.  Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Businesses: A Study of the Online Brokerage Industry , 2002, Inf. Syst. Res..

[32]  H. Bansal,et al.  “Migrating” to new service providers: Toward a unifying framework of consumers’ switching behaviors , 2005 .

[33]  Adamantios Diamantopoulos,et al.  The error term in formative measurement models: interpretation and modeling implications , 2006 .

[34]  John F. Lemmer,et al.  Causal Modeling , 1993, UAI.

[35]  Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay,et al.  Cloud computing - The business perspective , 2011, Decis. Support Syst..

[36]  Richard G. Netemeyer,et al.  Handbook of Marketing Scales: Multi-Item Measures for Marketing and Consumer Behavior Research , 1993 .

[37]  Ronald T. Cenfetelli,et al.  Interpretation of Formative Measurement in Information Systems Research , 2009, MIS Q..

[38]  P. Meehl.  Why Summaries of Research on Psychological Theories are Often Uninterpretable , 1990 .

[39]  I. Ajzen.  Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. , 2002 .

[40]  Elena Karahanna,et al.  Time Flies When You're Having Fun: Cognitive Absorption and Beliefs About Information Technology Usage , 2000, MIS Q..

[41]  Frank Gens,et al.  Cloud Computing Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security , 2010 .

[42]  David H. Benson.  A Field Study of End User Computing: Findings and Issues , 1983, MIS Q..

[43]  Randy H. Katz,et al.  A view of cloud computing , 2010, CACM.

[44]  E. Lee.  A theory of migration , 1966, Demography.

[45]  Judy K. Frels,et al.  Consumer switching costs: A typology, antecedents, and consequences , 2003 .

[46]  Jaishankar Ganesh,et al.  Understanding the Customer Base of Service Providers: An Examination of the Differences between Switchers and Stayers , 2000, Journal of Marketing.

[47]  Deborah Compeau,et al.  Application of Social Cognitive Theory to Training for Computer Skills , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[48]  Qing Hu,et al.  Assimilation of Enterprise Systems: The Effect of Institutional Pressures and the Mediating Role of Top Management , 2007, MIS Q..

[49]  David F. Larcker,et al.  Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error: Algebra and Statistics: , 1981 .

[50]  William David Salisbury,et al.  Perceived security and World Wide Web purchase intention , 2001, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..