The objective with this research was to investigate and understand the adoption of cloud computing and to find the process of adopting cloud services. The method used to collect data was interviews. To find both the users and the providers perspective two cases were investigated, one user case and one provider case. The results were divided into two parts, the first a number of categories that were found when comparing the user case to the provider case, the second a process that describes the adoption of cloud computing. The categories in the first part of the results are; decision process, definition of cloud computing, integration and security, adoption and future development. When analyzing the results we came to the conclusion that both users and providers are striving for simplicity, security and to move the responsibility away from the user. The adoption of cloud computing is not as complex as many organizations have thought and by moving the applications and hardware out of the organization the user can focus on its core strategies.

Yes / This deliberately dual perspective paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the engagement of SMEs in hosted enterprise applications in the UK. The emergence and development of the ASP sector has attracted much interest and highly optimistic forecasts for revenues. The paper starts by considering ICT adoption by SMEs in general before reviewing the provision of hosted enterprise applications in the US and UK (market perspective). The study is extended by qualitative empirical data collected by semi-structured interviews with SME users of hosted enterprise applications (user perspective) and subsequent analysis in order to develop the key findings and conclusions. From an SME user perspective the key findings to emerge from the study include: i) confirmation that ICT infrastructure was no longer a barrier to adoption, ii) the pragmatic approach taken to security issues, iii) the use of both multiple information systems and multiple service providers, iv) the financial attractiveness of the rental model and v) the intention to continue or extend the use of hosted applications. It also highlights the opportunity for gaining competitive advantage by using hosted enterprise applications to reduce costs. There are very few empirical studies of hosted applications which take deliberately market and SME user perspectives - this paper makes an important contribution in this emerging field.

Yes / Against a background of the low engagement of SMEs in e-business this paper investigates the emergence of, and potential for, critical e-applications defined as `an e-business application, promoted by a trusted third party, which engages a significant number of SMEs by addressing an important shared business concern within an aggregation.¿ By a review of secondary data and empirical investigation with service providers and other intermediaries the research shows that such applications can facilitate the e-business engagement of SMEs. There are three key findings, namely: the emergence of aggregation specific e-business applications; the emergence of collaboratively based `one to many¿ business models; and the importance of trusted third parties in the adoption of higher complexity e-business applications by SMEs. Significantly this work takes a deliberately provider perspective and complements the already considerable literature on SME IT adoption from a user and network perspective. In terms of future research the importance of a better conceptual understanding of the impact of complexity on the adoption of IT by SMEs is highlighted.

This thesis examines the adoption process of Information Technology (IT)-based solutions within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia, in the furniture and handicraft industries. As the Indonesian SMEs grew in size, they faced new problems in managing their businesses. They have tried to use IT to support their business and resolve some of these problems. Yet in their efforts to adopt IT, they often faced new problems by introducing new technology into the organisation. The thesis examines the experiences of 35 Indonesian SMEs when they adopted IT. We investigated what factors were influencing IT adoption; the process of IT adoption which covers decision making, implementation or deployment and evaluation; and how SMEs cope with and recover from failure. The participants’ experiences were compared to what has been reported in the existing literature. Analysis of the relevant research literature revealed some unexplored issues concerning IT adoption within SMEs. Most of the published research has been conducted in developed countries, with little in developing or less developed countries. From those few, only one was conducted in Indonesia and it was about IT diffusion. The focus of previous studies was mainly to explore factors influencing IT adoption and they mostly utilised survey techniques to elicit the factors. The scant literature suggests that exploring IT adoption can be approached from three different perspectives: individualist, structuralist, and interactive process. This thesis uses the interactive process approach to explore how well those factors that have been well documented in the literature actually work in Indonesian SMEs’ IT adoption. As a result of our exploration, we formulated a model of an interactive process view of IT adoption within Indonesian SMEs. A qualitative approach was used to answer research questions and explore the participants’ experiences in depth. In this thesis, we used in-depth interviews to explore participants’ experiences. These interviews enabled us to draw out not only IT adoption processes but also successes and failures in IT adoption. Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection tool. They provided guidance so the interviews stayed well within the focus of the thesis, yet provided room to explore new and relevant issues that emerged during the interview process. Content analysis of the interview transcripts was used to extract answers given during the semi-structured interviews and to identify new themes that emerged from the data. The analysis resulted in important findings. First, it confirms some factors found in the literature as actually influencing IT adoption in Indonesian SMEs. Despite some similarities, we found some differences such as government role and competitors’ influence on IT adoption. The other findings are concerned with the failures faced by some of the participants. We then explore the differences between failed and successful participants, and how Indonesian SMEs cope with and recover from failed IT deployment. Finally, we revised the initial model of the interactive process of IT adoption. The extended model captures new insights into success and failure of IT adoption, and could provide a better understanding of IT adoption within Indonesian SMEs. The interaction between different factors in the IT adoption shows how those factors influence each other and how different stakeholders could manage their own interests related to IT adoption. The improved model could be used to guide Indonesian SME managers to manage their adoption of IT more effectively.

This thesis examines the adoption process of Information Technology (IT)-based solutions within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia, in the furniture and handicraft industries. As the Indonesian SMEs grew in size, they faced new problems in managing their businesses. They have tried to use IT to support their business and resolve some of these problems. Yet in their efforts to adopt IT, they often faced new problems by introducing new technology into the organisation. The thesis examines the experiences of 35 Indonesian SMEs when they adopted IT. We investigated what factors were influencing IT adoption; the process of IT adoption which covers decision making, implementation or deployment and evaluation; and how SMEs cope with and recover from failure. The participants’ experiences were compared to what has been reported in the existing literature. Analysis of the relevant research literature revealed some unexplored issues concerning IT adoption within SMEs. Most of the published research has been conducted in developed countries, with little in developing or less developed countries. From those few, only one was conducted in Indonesia and it was about IT diffusion. The focus of previous studies was mainly to explore factors influencing IT adoption and they mostly utilised survey techniques to elicit the factors. The scant literature suggests that exploring IT adoption can be approached from three different perspectives: individualist, structuralist, and interactive process. This thesis uses the interactive process approach to explore how well those factors that have been well documented in the literature actually work in Indonesian SMEs’ IT adoption. As a result of our exploration, we formulated a model of an interactive process view of IT adoption within Indonesian SMEs. A qualitative approach was used to answer research questions and explore the participants’ experiences in depth. In this thesis, we used in-depth interviews to explore participants’ experiences. These interviews enabled us to draw out not only IT adoption processes but also successes and failures in IT adoption. Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection tool. They provided guidance so the interviews stayed well within the focus of the thesis, yet provided room to explore new and relevant issues that emerged during the interview process. Content analysis of the interview transcripts was used to extract answers given during the semi-structured interviews and to identify new themes that emerged from the data. The analysis resulted in important findings. First, it confirms some factors found in the literature as actually influencing IT adoption in Indonesian SMEs. Despite some similarities, we found some differences such as government role and competitors’ influence on IT adoption. The other findings are concerned with the failures faced by some of the participants. We then explore the differences between failed and successful participants, and how Indonesian SMEs cope with and recover from failed IT deployment. Finally, we revised the initial model of the interactive process of IT adoption. The extended model captures new insights into success and failure of IT adoption, and could provide a better understanding of IT adoption within Indonesian SMEs. The interaction between different factors in the IT adoption shows how those factors influence each other and how different stakeholders could manage their own interests related to IT adoption. The improved model could be used to guide Indonesian SME managers to manage their adoption of IT more effectively.

The contribution of small firms towards the creation of economic value in a country’s Gross Domestic Product, employment and innovation is widely acknowledged. Relatively little is known on how small firms are adopting IT strategically to acheive business-IT alignment and how alignment changes over time. This study examines from a dynamic perspective IT adoption actions undertaken by owner-managers, in relation to business-IT alignment in small firms in the island state of Malta. To attain its research objectives, the methodological stance adopted in this research study is that of grounded theory. Moving away from a deductive approach, this study embraces a constructivist approach using a combination of inductive and abductive thought. No fewer than thirty-one in-depth interviews are conducted with owner-managers to observe alignment patterns of IT adoption behaviour in their respective small firms operating in Malta and employing up to 49 employees. Four business-IT alignment equilibrium states are identified, serving as markers to map out the common IT alignment paths that each firm pursued, not necessarily in linear form, during their operational years. A substantive model, which identifies four distinct IT alignment patterns, denotes each common path that a group of firms took in their movement from one alignment equilibrium state to another, throughout their life-cycle stages. This study has substantive application and comprises several implications for the development of IT adoption behaviour when small firms endeavour to strategically align business with IT. It provides policy-makers, academic researchers and small firms’ owner-managers with a theoretical framework that can provide them with factors that can predict the kind of alignment patterns that are likely to occur. Findings indicate that the quality of IT related technological solutions that are taken up by each small firm are reliant on the owner-manager’s characteristics that focus mainly on the knowledge of internal IT expertise and the project management capabilities to manage IT outsourcers. Given that few studies have been conducted to study and establish patterns of IT alignment in small firms, this research provides an important contribution to knowledge and to the existing academic literature.

Field managers have a complex job that requires coordinating a large number of variables that affect construction work. This makes their job primarily abstract, which complicates the observation of their activities; in turn, their knowledge is usually organized in a way that does not adequately consider the relationships between these work variables. As such, practical approaches to aid field managers’ work have often neglected these relationships and have been insufficient to aid practitioners’ coordination tasks. For example, many information tools have been developed to support decisions in the field, but their tendency to separate work activities makes it complicated to integrate the tools into work. Similarly, education programs often focus on individual concepts and tasks, which do not match the practical organization of work activities in the field. This dissertation presents the development of comprehensive cognitive models of field managers to gain insight into the approaches of expert practitioners to address the relationships between the major variables of work. Using the Applied Cognitive Work Analysis (ACWA) technique, it is possible to model work in terms of goals, decisions and information requirements of the job. These components are utilized to explain how the variables of work relate to each other and how they contribute towards attaining the objectives and responsibilities of the job. In particular, the inclusion of activities and tools as part of this set of variables gives insight as to how goals are attained through such means. The cognitive model obtained is applied to, first, analyze the integration of information tools into field managers’ work and, second, analyze the utilization of cognitive models to develop instructional programs and tools. As such, this dissertation makes three main contributions. The first contribution is the development of thorough cognitive models of field managers’ work. The second contribution is the use of these models to consider cognitive and behavioral aspects of adoption of information tools in the field. And the third contribution is the use of these models to present field management learners with the opportunity to use the knowledge and approaches of field managers in a robust learning environment. / text

The purpose of this research was to determine if patient journey process modeling could act as a change management tool to support electronic health record (EHR) adoption, at a tertiary-care mental health centre. This research study was based on a pre/post design, which evaluated the attitudes of clinicians??? pre and post implementation of the EHR. A survey was used to assess the attitudes of various healthcare professionals, such as physicians, nurses and a spectrum of allied health disciplines, at various phases of the planning and implementation process. In addition to the surveys, current and future state PaJMa (patient journey modeling architecture) models representing technology use and process flows of all units were created by observational studies, and served as change management tools. These PaJMa models were then presented as part of an intervention that was held in the form of an educational session to highlight the benefits of technology, and to address the common concerns identified from the initial survey results. The centre for mental health sciences facility was used as the case study to apply the PaJMa model and assess its change management functionality. Since, the organization was moving from paper to electronic based patient charts it was an ideal choice for this research. It was predicted that the attitudes and opinions of clinicians towards the EHR implementation, and EHRs in general, would change and become more positive with increased knowledge and education. This in-turn would increase EHR adoption and hence lead to a successful implementation.

The adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is widely regarded as essential in contemporary organisational environments. Such technologies have substantial effects on an organisation’s productivity and competitiveness. However, the nature of the effects varies across types of organisation (small to large), by country-context (developed and developing countries) and with the type of ICT adopted. This thesis focuses primarily on Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in a less-researched developing country context, the region of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with special reference to Oman. In terms of the ICT under investigation, recognising the emergence of more interactive forms of technology, this thesis focuses on social media applications. It is widely recognised that the adoption and use of these applications change the ways in which organisations conduct their activities and represent a critical business opportunity for SMEs. This opportunity will only be realised by SMEs if, and when, social media are adopted in their organisations. This therefore creates a requirement to understand the factors that influence SMEs in making the adoption decision. The research related to such factors is scarce, not least because the technologies are relatively new. By using the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework, this study therefore attempted to understand the factors influencing the decision by SMEs to adopt social media. It employed a sequential, exploratory mixed method, where both qualitative and quantitative approaches were combined to meet the research objectives. In the first stage, a preliminary TOE model of 18 factors was developed from the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 18 SMEs owner-managers in Muscat, the capital city of Oman. In the second stage, a survey involving 205 SMEs in Muscat was conducted to examine empirically the preliminary model. The survey data were analysed using logistic regression (LR). Of the factors examined, compatibility, observability, trialability, trust, image, perceived lack of managerial time, market scope, customer pressure and family and friends’ support were found to have significant influence on SMEs’ decisions to adopt social media. These findings have important implications and value for the research community, SMEs and policy makers (in particular, the Public Authority for SME Development (PASMED)) in terms of formulating improved strategies for social media adoption. The resulting research model proposed in this thesis can improve these stakeholders’ understandings of why some SMEs have chosen to adopt social media technologies, while other SMEs which face similar market conditions have not.

This paper investigates IT value creation in transition and developed economies in Central and Eastern Europe. Using absorptive capacity theory and data envelopment analysis, we view business process transformation in ERP adoption as an economic production process. Data analysis suggests that the "sum of history" shapes adoption performance of firms, meaning that transition economies may suffer from less developed absorptive capacities in regard to IT and therefore face a greater challenge in ERP utilisation.