Title: Australian SME adoption of cloud computing: drivers and challenges

Authors: Bahjat Fakieh; Peter Busch; Yvette Blount

Addresses: Information Systems Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia ' Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Sydney, Australia ' Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Sydney, Australia

Abstract: Adopting cloud services may increase opportunities for achieving competitive advantage and improving business outcomes - this is significant to Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which account for 96% of all Australian organisations. This work explored via a semi-structured survey - the possible drivers and challenges for Australian SMEs adopting cloud computing, to achieve a competitive advantage. Some 470 Australian SMEs were sampled in six Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Wollongong, and Newcastle. A conceptual framework was developed using resource-based theory (RBT) together with the technology, organisation and environment (TOE) framework. This work provides an objective benchmark concerning the drivers and challenges when SMEs adopt cloud computing, however we restrict ourselves to the Australian context.

Keywords: Australia; challenges; cloud computing; drivers; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; technology adoption.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2022.124925

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2022 Vol.40 No.4, pp.514 - 539

Received: 02 Oct 2019
Accepted: 30 Dec 2019
Published online: 17 Aug 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article