Empirical Research On The Enterprise Cloud Computing Assimilation

Cloud computing is a pay-as-you-use service model that provides multiple users with information technology services that meet user needs through the Internet.More and more companies have been adopting cloud-based information systems to achieve strategic flexibility and operational efficiency.However,the commercial value of cloud computing has not yet been fully realized,and so-called assimilation failure.Cloud computing assimilation is a more complex organizational and structural change process than the technology change process adopted by cloud computing.The existing research lacks a comprehensive framework to determine the enabling and inhibitors of cloud computing assimilation,leading to some key factors being ignored.In order to reveal the key factors affecting the assimilation of enterprise cloud computing,make enterprises effectively realize the integration with cloud computing services.Construct four salient factors along two bipolar dimensions: internal vs.external and enabling vs.inhibiting.Top management support(internal enabler)and government support(external enabler)can facilitate organizational learning,while organizational inertia(internal inhibitor)and data security risk(external inhibitor)can suppress organizational learning when firms try to establish new routines of cloud computing use.To deeply understand the impacts of these critical factors,we investigate the joint effects of the enablers and the inhibitors besides their separate effects.Consider that the enterprise cloud computing assimilation process involves multiple interactions between multiple elements,and there may be multiple equivalent configurations.The qualitative comparison analysis method(ie fsQCA)of fuzzy sets is used to carry out the research.This method can effectively deal with the configuration of multiple factors at the same time.How the organizational management forms a causal configuration with other factors to realize the assimilation of cloud computing.The analysis was conducted using field survey data from 376 Chinese companies.The main findings are as follows:(1)Top management support and government support have a positive impact on cloud computing assimilation,and security risks have a negative impact on cloud computing assimilation.Organizational inertia negatively regulates the relationship between top management support and cloud computing assimilation.Security risks negatively regulate the relationship between government support and cloud computing assimilation.The results show that cloud computing assimilation is affected by the internal or external factors alone or in combination,which is a complex process;Top management support has little impact when internal inertia is high;Government support has little impact on enterprises with high security risks.(2)The study also found two equivalent configurations for enterprise cloud computing assimilation and one enterprise cloud computing non-assimilation configuration: Path 1: Provide appropriate top management support for enterprises with government policy support Will benefit the assimilation of its cloud computing.Path 2: For security risks and a dynamic enterprise,providing top management support will also facilitate the assimilation of cloud computing.Path 3: Enterprises without government policy support have low security risks and low organizational inertia.Only top management support is not nough to achieve cloud computing assimilation.The results show the core role of the government in the assimilation of cloud computing and the necessity and limitations of top management support.Enterprises can flexibly choose effective paths based on existing resources to better realize the assimilation of cloud computing.