Cloud computing, a current IT trend, is becoming more integrated in companies’ strategies and also increasingly important for firms. Thus, many organizations have or are considering implementing cloud services. Banks, however, tend to not adopt cloud computing at the same pace as other industries. Therefore, it is of interest to increase the understanding of which factors that obstruct or foster an adoption of cloud computing in the banking industry in Sweden. These factors have been examined from a bank and external perspective, through interviews with IT personnel from the four big banks in Sweden, external IT consultants, authorities (Finansinspektionen and Datainspektionen) and Svenska Bankföreningen. The empirical findings have been analyzed in accordance with Tornatzky and Fleischer’s (1990) TOE framework - technology, organization and external task environment. There were eleven key factors found in this study, which are the following: 1) Integration, Lack of competence, Sensitive information, Heritage, Employee resistance, Miscommunication, Size and structure, Common heritage, Standard agreements, New actors and Regulations. 2) All the factors, except New actors, were shown to obstruct and delay an adoption of cloud computing for traditional banks in Sweden. 3) It was found that all these key factors interlink with each other in some sense.

電子商務近年來快速發展，並徹底改變了商業環境。電子商務能為企業帶來諸多好處，例如：降低交易成本、增加營收、改善流程等等，這些好處使得透過電子商務進行商業活動已經成為不可避免的趨勢了。在眾多電子商務工具中，又以B2B電子商務平台的重要性為最高，因為B2B電子商務平台扮演著媒合全球買家與賣家的腳色，並且創造了非常龐大的交易量。 近年來，探究電子商務的文獻愈趨增加，然而多從科技角度切入探討，較少由策略管理面著手；此外，在主題選擇上，大多為影響採用電子商務與否、以及轉為進階使用兩方面原因和結果，對於採用速度的差異鮮少有文獻加以琢磨；在研究樣本選定上，又以單一國家、已開發國家為多，然而開發中國家近年來的興起、電子商務市場發展潛能卻是不可忽略的；最後則是在探討的變數部分，環境相關議題，尤以制度和文化兩方面為最重要，但卻少有文獻詳細談討。因此本文從策略管理角度著手，並以新興市場和B2B電子商務平台為主軸，探究企業採納B2B電子商務平台速度快慢之原因，以及不同採用速度對於績效是否有不同影響。 本文以216間有採用全球最大B2B電子商務平台阿里巴巴的中國大陸中小企業為研究對象，並以科技、組織、環境的架構來建設模型，最後以路徑分析的量化方法檢視所建構之模型適配度、以及變數間的因果關係。 研究結果顯示，在科技與組織兩個構面中，企業若擁有較少的科技能力、或管理經驗與能力相對較低，反而會更快採用B2B電子商務平台，因為這些企業將沒有多餘人力和技術自行架設網站，同時也缺乏現有行銷通路而轉向採用成本相對較低之B2B電子商務平台，反之，則相對會訴諸現有的行銷管道、或出現科技排擠效果。在環境構面中，企業若位處於國內制度發展較佳的省份，也會因為競爭加劇、提升溝通能力等原因，傾向快速採用B2B平台。最後也發現早期採用B2B電子商務平台，能在短期刺激銷售額提升、並透過內部流程改善降低成本，而使成長率提升。 / With e-commerce, the whole business environment has been fundamentally changed. It has become an inevitable trend that enterprises conduct businesses through e-commerce because it brings benefits as reducing transaction costs or generating new revenues. Among all e-commerce, the importance of B2B e-market is the most significant due to its role as the ”hub” for both buyers and sellers and the huge trade volume it has made. There is growing number of studies on e-commerce related issues. It is found that most literatures are conducted from the perspective of IT innovations, while rather few are discussed from strategic management domain. As for the topics, there are lots of literatures on the drives of pre- or post e-commerce adoption, while few on how rapidly enterprises may adopt e-commerce. Examining the countries of studies, most are conducted on one single developed country. Studies on developing markets call for more research. As for factors incorporated in studies, the environmental factors are often neglected. As a result, this study bridges these gaps and makes discussion on the drives and performance outcomes of the speed of B2B e-markets adoption. 216 samples of Chinese enterprises are selected from the biggest e-markets in the world, Alibaba.com. The TOE framework is used to construct the model and path analysis is adopted to examine the relationships. The results show that with less technology capability and managerial competence, firms tend to adopt e-commerce more rapidly due to lack of existing websites or marketing channel. It also shows that with higher development in domestic institutional environment, firms are likely to adopt B2B e-market earlier due to reasons of better communication or competition. Last, firms tend to benefit from early adoption of B2B e-markets in the short term due to improvement in internal processes, increasing sales or cost reduction.

Background: Blockchain is a technological innovation, and its benefits such as decentralized transactions without a trusted third party, improvements in traceability and efficiency can potentially facilitate complex challenges faced by supply chains (Hughes et al., 2019; Saberi et al., 2019). However, solutions are rather in a demonstration stage, which raises the question of what barriers prevent organizations from adopting blockchain (Kouhizadeh et al., 2021). Especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) have been neglected in blockchain adoption studies (Wong et al., 2020). However, research recognizes that they should be considered separately because of their specific needs (Chouki et al., 2020). Moreover, the pre-decision stage of the adoption is of interest, as blockchain applications for the supply chain are still in a pilot phase (Y. Wang, Singgih, et al., 2019). Research Question: What barriers do SMEs face during the pre-decision stage of blockchain adoption for supply chain? Theoretical Framework: A framework developed by Kouhizadeh et al. (2021) containing barriers that impede blockchain adoption for supply chains is contextualized in the pre-decision phase and focused on SMEs. Methodology and Data Collection: This thesis follows a qualitative, deductive approach. An exploratory single case study was conducted to collect data through semi-structured interviews. This sheds light on the blockchain adoption from the perspective of a Swedish SME in the pre-decision stage that intends to use blockchain for sustainable water management in an agricultural supply chain. Complementary to this, blockchain experts are interviewed to enrich companies' responses that cannot fully illuminate the barriers due to their limited knowledge. Findings: Supply chain barriers emerged as the most important, especially 'SC2- Problems in collaboration, communication, and coordination in the supply chain', and 'SC1- Lack of customers' awareness and tendency about sustainability and blockchain technology'. Furthermore, four characteristics were identified that significantly influence the perception of the barriers in the setting studied: The proactive commitment to adopting blockchain, the affinity and attitude toward information technology (IT), trust, and financial support. Conclusions: Several managerial and theoretical implications result from the study, as well as suggestions for further research. These include that SMEs and consultants should consider the characteristics that influence perceptions of barriers in order to prioritize the barriers, and also in research they should be more emphasized to enhance transferability of blockchain adoption research. Limitations include that the case study was conducted on a single SME in Sweden, therefore a validation of the results in other SMEs would be beneficial. In addition, a longitudinal study could shed light on how the barriers change during the adoption process, and further research could reveal the strategies that SMEs use to overcome the barriers.

The rising concerns of climate change and global warming have made the current practices of industrial energy generation and consumption highly unsustainable. There is a growing awareness of the importance of renewable energy use in addressing climate change and establishing sustainable development. One of the renewable sources which have gained popularity over time is solar energy. Among the various solar technologies, one potential segment is solar thermal technology which involves solar thermal collectors. This technology mainly concentrates on providing industrial process heat across a wide range of temperature, and it's classified within the industry of Solar Heat for Industrial Process (SHIP). Though the SHIP technologies show strong technical feasibility, only few industries employ solar heat and there is a decreasing trend of adoption.  Hence, this research aims to understand the reasons for decreasing adoption by studying what and how are the factors affecting the adoption of solar thermal technology. This is done by performing a qualitative study across two industrial sectors food and chemical in the region of Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The obtained data by conducting semi-structured interviews are analysed using the Technological-Organization-Environment (TOE) theoretical framework.  The results from the study show that there are 9 important factors affecting the adoption of solar thermal technology that are categorized into technological factors (reliability, flexibility, financial attractiveness, and competitive alternatives), organizational factors (management support and resources) and environmental factors (regulatory environment, technology support provider and competitive pressure). Apart from the technological factors of lack of reliability and financial attractiveness, the organizational factors of lack of resources and the environmental factor of low incentives in MENA region, the aspect of cheap competitive alternatives especially in the MENA region, is causing the decrease in adoption within the food and chemical industry.

Background: Artificial intelligence has risen to prominence as a subject of study. The pace of artificial intelligence evolution in Bangladesh's IT industry is increasing by the day. In Bangladesh's IT Industry, artificial intelligence (AI) offers enormous potential. Despite the huge potential and advantages of AI implementation or adoption, Bangladesh's IT industry is still failing to move forward with its AI implementation. Objectives: The objective of this study is to identify the main factors that disturb the implementation of AI in the IT Company of Bangladesh. Novelty: In Bangladesh, most of the AI-related research conducted by focusing existing Scope of AI in the Bangladesh, as Bangladesh is in the initial phase of AI Adoption, this paper, therefore, sought to find out the factors that inhibit IT Industry to implement AI. Method: A quantitative method is used to find the results of the study. This paper reports on the results of an online survey questionnaire involving 51 IT professionals from a large IT company of Bangladesh about their perception regarding AI to find out the challenges. Results: Result indicates certain major challenges in AI implementation in Bangladesh’s IT Industry like Lack of AI skills and Incomplete knowledge or understanding regarding AI's capabilities and limitations, Internal culture Lack of Financial investment, , Data management, Lack of technological Infrastructure, Lack of top managerial support, Lack of legal and ethical framework, Non AI Approaches are sufficient by encapsulating them into three challenges context-organizational, environmental and technical barriers using IS theory TOE framework. Contributions: The study offers Insights to policymakers, executives and top-level managers to pay attention of adopting AI in IT Industry of Bangladesh by overcoming the challenges, besides further research can be conducted on how Bangladesh IT industry can overcome the AI implementation challenges. Conclusion: As Bangladesh is progressing with Technology, hence this is a high time to identify the major challenges that inhibit the AI Implantation in Bangladesh’s IT Industry. Policymakers, executives and top-level managers should find a proper solution policy to mitigate the challenges and adapt AI to boost up IT Industry of Bangladesh.

Although there is research about the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) from a management perspective, the research is not clear as to whether the ERP benefits justify the costs, not only in dollars, but also in effort, from the end user's perspective. Using the theory of diffusion of innovation (DOI), the purpose of this quantitative research was to identify the set of postimplementation sustainability factors that maximized ERP user value, which are major issues for management, and measured their relative significance. The study's structural model incorporated the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, which is a conceptualization of the theory of diffusion of innovation, to predict the postimplementation sustainability factors from the ERP user's point of view. The partial least squares structure equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach provided the needed explanatory analysis to test the predictive power of the structural model. The target population was organizational employees who had used an operational ERP system for at least 4 years in the state of Colorado. A convenience sample of 163 cases responded to the online questionnaire. Hypotheses testing indicated that the independent variables of ERP information quality, ERP system quality, ERP knowledge and learning, shared beliefs, job relevance, and coordination significantly impacted the dependent variable ERP user value. The positive social change implications of this study include a better understanding of ERP postimplementation sustainability factors from the users' perspectives and their social impact on organizational performance, which could lead to increased employee effectiveness, productivity, efficiency, and individual satisfaction due to ERP usage.

Digitalization has been going on for a long period of time and has affected large parts of society. Accounting is one of the areas where digitalization has been crucial for efficiency and improved systems. Cloud-based accounting systems, offered by various cloud providers, are one of these systems that has been affected. Collection of data has taken place through a qualitative structure with a multiple case study design, all interviewees have been involved in decision-making around cloud-based accounting systems. By using the service model, TAM-model and TOE-framework, an analysis has been made based on cloud services and what they offer. Based on previous research and the collected data, the service model shows that the advantages of implementing cloud-based accounting systems are cost savings and flexibility. Previous research mentions that the disadvantages of implementation are aspects regarding security and privacy which the collected data partly confirms, however it also shows that developments have taken place in the area. The TAM-model examines factors that influence the acceptance and adoption of cloud- based accounting systems based on usability and ease of use. Previous research and collected data show a positive correlation between these variables and cloud-based accounting systems. The TOE-framework includes factors that influence technology use and technology adoption of cloud-based accounting systems based on technical, organizational and environmental aspects. Previous research and collected data show a positive correlation between these aspects and cloud- based accounting systems.

AI's ability to process large data sets and make intelligent decisions has revolutionized the industrial landscape and opened new avenues for innovations that can contribute to a more sustainable future. It plays a pivotal role as a catalyst for digital transformation, particularly in sectors such as energy production, where it offers significant potential to promote sustainable development. This study researches the factors that condition artificial intelligence (AI) implementation in the energy sector based on the Technological-Organizational-Environmental (TOE) framework. It employs a deductive approach to identify AI implementation's technological, organizational, and environmental factors through a qualitative case study approach involving an energy company in Sweden. Our findings indicate that technological readiness and organizational alignment are essential, with differences in environmental pressures further affecting AI readiness. The study concludes that successful AI implementation depends on robust technological structure and organizational readiness, with varying environmental factors regulating these conditions. This research contributes to the literature by emphasizing the critical role of AI readiness in optimizing operations and driving innovation within the energy sector, accentuating the need for companies to enhance their AI capabilities to manage integration challenges effectively. This study enriches the TOE framework by introducing an additional dimension to the environmental factor, incorporating Network considerations where boundaries are undefined due to digitalization.

Information and communication technologies can be used to deliver healthcare services and improve the healthcare system. Any electronic healthcare system whose usage results in the efficient and enhanced quality of healthcare is an eHealth system and can be beneficial for medical enterprises. Despite the advantages that eHealth systems offer, medical enterprises are often reluctant to abandon their paper-based systems and embrace eHealth solutions. Through a review of existing eHealth literature, this study identified generic technologies used within South African medical enterprises. Fourteen (14) technologies, that represent a basket of eHealth systems for supporting the business management, professional clinical informatics, patient information storage and consumer health informatics functional areas, were identified. The study then aimed to determine the state of adoption of these technologies as well as the factors influencing adoption. The technological, organisational and environmental (TOE) factors that contributed to the current state of adoption were identified through a review of existing TOE literature. A model that explores the effects of these pre-determined TOE factors on the propensity to adopt eHealth was developed and tested. A cross-sectional, quantitative study was carried out and survey data was collected from a sample of 130 medical enterprises in South Africa. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Correlation analysis was used to test the model’s hypotheses and hierarchical regression was used to test the overall TOE model. By using the TOE framework, the study has provided a theoretical contribution and addressed a gap in the literature into the barriers and determinants of the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in healthcare. The results of the study show that South African medical enterprises use systems that range from simple electronic fund transfer systems to more complex electronic record and clinical decision support systems. Of the 14 technologies that were identified, business information systems such as medical aid claims submission systems and electronic record systems for patient and fee related information were the most adopted while a steady, but continued increase in the adoption of clinical health information systems was observed. Specifically, the study reveals that electronic fund transfer systems are the most adopted systems while ePrescription systems are the least used. Furthermore, the study shows that in addition to the enterprises’ operating period, perceived benefits, IT infrastructure, senior clinician involvement, resource commitment and external pressure are correlated with the propensity to adopt while system complexity is a barrier to technology adoption.

Technology that is widely discussed in the business community today is cloud computing and cloud-based systems, as a cloud-based CRM-system. Considering that large companies, such as Google, Netflix and Microsoft, use this type of technology, it is important to ask whether such systems add something to the business or whether it is just an IT trend. The purpose of this study is therefore to create a decision model that will determine whether the company will implement a cloud-based system or maintain it in on-premises. The decision model should shed light on various criteria for cloud-based solutions. The study will be designed with the help of the TOE framework (technology, organization and environment). The aim of the study is to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the consequences and benefits of cloud-based systems? (2) what are the differences between the criteria in the literature compare to what you  practice? (3) Are there differences in the views of the supplier and the customer around this area? The result is based on qualitative interviews with people from the supplier and the customer. The interviews also represent the TOE framework. In addition, an interview with an external expert has been carried out in order to evaluate and support the results of the conducted interviews. The survey has resulted in a decision model with three alternatives and eleven criterias. The analysis shows that there is a difference in what the literature emphasizes compared to what you actually are doing.  The views between the supplier and the customer are also different. Where the customer does not want to lose control and experience a lock-in effect. On the other hand, the supplier wants to deliver the latest technology and give new challenges to their employees. The study can be concluded as follows: the main reason for not implementing the cloud-based system for the customer is; deposit, cost and loss of control. The main reason for implementing the cloud-based system for the vendor is; consultant development, functionality and availability. / Teknologi er altomfattende og oppslukende. Teknologiutvikling aksele-rerer raskere hver eneste dag, og kan raskt bidra til å skape et skille mellom de aktører som følger utviklingen og de som uteblir fra utvik-lingen.  Tilfører cloudbaserte og cloud computing nytte til bedriften eller er det kun en IT-trend? Hensikten med dette studiet er derfor å skape en beslutningsmodell som skal avgjøre om bedriften skal implementere et cloudbasert system eller bevare de systemer de har i dag i et  on-premises miljø. Beslutningsmodellen skal belyse ulike kriterier innen cloudbaserte løsninger. Studien skal utformes med hjelp av TOE-rammeverket (teknologi, organisasjon og miljø). Målet med studien er å besvare følgende forskningsspørsmål: (1) hvilke konsekvenser og nytteverdier medfører cloudbaserte systemer? (2) hvilke forskjeller er det mellom kriteriene i litteraturen og det som utføres i praksis? (3) finns det forskjeller på synspunktene til leverandøren og kunden rundt dette fagområdet? Resultatet bygger på kvalitative intervjuer med personer fra leverandøren av tjenesten og kunden. I tillegg har det blitt gjennom-ført et intervju med en ekstern ekspert, for å evaluere og støtte opp under resultatet fra gjennomførte  intervjuer. Undersøkelsen har resul-tert i en beslutningsmodell med to alternativ og elleve kriterier. Analy-sen viser at det er forskjeller  på hvilke kriterier litteraturen vektlegger sammenlignet med de kriterier som benyttes i praksis. Det er også forskjeller mellom de synspunkter som mellom leverandøren utrykker sammenlignet med og kundens synspunkter. Kunden ønsker ikke  å miste kontrollen og opplever en innlåsingseffekt. Leverandøren derimot ønsker å levere den nyeste teknologien samt bidra til økt stimulering gjennom effektivisering av arbeidsprosesser og rutiner. Dette bidrar til å stimulere og utfordre den enkelte ansatte.  Studien kan konkluderes på følgende måte: hovedårsaken for å ikke implementere cloudbaserte system for kunden er; innlåsing, investering og driftskostnad og risiko for tap av kontroll. Hovedårsaken  for å implementere et cloudbaserte system for leverandøren er; organisasjonens mulighet til å jobbe med nyeste teknologi stimulerer til økt konsulent utvikling, funksjonalitet og tilgjengelighet.