Adoption of Cloud Computing by Healthcare (Thesis Sample)

CLOUD COMPUTING
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Cloud computing is a model that provides an enabling and on demand network environment to business eneterprises. The model enables organizations to share from a pool of computing resources that are configurable to meet user needs such as networks, servers, applications and storage. The advantage of the resources is the requirement for minimal management effort or the interaction of a service providers. Overall, cloud computing promotes availability of resources to organizations (Ambrust et al , 2010,p.88).
Cloud computing has become an integral part of conducting business and majority of organizations have either adopted the infrastructure or are on the verge of adopting. The advantages of cloud computing include massive cost savings from the use of Information Technology systems. Despite the massive movement by organizations toward acquisition, implemetation and use of the cloud computing infrastructure, there exixts little to no research on the adoption of the internet and cloud computing in specific (Ambrust et al , 2010,p.88)
The theory of Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) frame work was developed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990). The aim was to develop a process to analyze the adoption of technological innovations by business organizations. According to the theory, there are three aspects of firm’s characteristics that dictate the adoption and implementation of technological innovations. They include the external, internal and technical environments. The technological environment includes the internal and external technologies that are relevant to the organization. The technical contexts influence how the organization adopts the technology. It includes both the existing technologies and those that need to be taken. The organization context involves the characteristics of the firm that influence the adoption of technological innovations (Tornatzky and Fleischer 1990, p.38)
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The technical contexts entail the size, structure, support from top management, the quality of the human resources and the amount of internal resources available for use by the organization. The external characteristics involve the field within which the organization conducts its business activities. They are the industry, competitors, regulations, resource availability and the government. Organizations technological decisions depend on the characteristics of the industry to a greater part due to competition and the relationship that it has with the various stakeholders such as customers and suppliers (Tornatzky and Fleischer 1990, p.52).
The diffusion theory was developed by Everett Rogers in the year 1962. According to the theory, an innovation is an idea or a practice perceived to be adopted by a unit. Similar to the theory of Technology Organization Environment, the diffusion theory considers innovations and specifically, cloud computing technology as a necessary adaptation strategy for organizations in the modern world. Its used to describe the process through which the particular change moves via communication channels from one member to another member of a social system. The theory is effectively used in areas that need explanation behind some organizations adopting to technology earlier than others. Specifically, it assesses the impact of various organization factors such as centralization, formalization, complexity and their effect on the adaptation capability of the organization. (Rogers 1995, p. 88).
According to Rogers (1995, p. 88), adoption is the decision arrived at by an individual to implement and use the innovation. The different characteristics of adopters reduce their uncertainty of a particular benefit .The theory addresses innovation from various innovation features such as the relative advantage that reflects the degree to which the innovation appears superior to the previous versions. Second is compatibility that is the extent to which the innovation is viewed to be consistent with the current trends and needs of the adopters. Third is complexity that is the degree the innovation is perceived to be easy or difficult to use and understand. Fourth it explains trainability that is the extent to which the change is perceived to be easy to experiment on a trial basis and finally is observability that is the degree to which the innovation is perceived to be easy or hard to observe the results of acquisition, implementation and use (Rogers 1995, p. 88).
The institutional theory was developed by DiMaggio and Powell in the year 1983. It provides that organizations come up with irational decisions to adopt IT innovations in the effort to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. There exist other innovation influences that determine organization's adoption of IT innovations. Specifically, the adoption of innovation by firms is to ensure their longterm survival. Similar to Diffusion and TOE theories, it pays attention to the broad factors that determine the firms adoption of innovations at the institutional level (DiMaggio and Powell 1983, p.32). The external environment provides pressures to the organization and further forces it to adopt the various structures strategies and processes that are adopted by other similar organizations.
Incontrast to (DOI) and (TOE), the theory provides that organizations adapt to the given technologies to achieve organizational legitimacy as opposed to improving their efficiency. The legitimacy determines the level to which the external environment accepts the group. The various pressures include mimetic, coercive and normative pressures. Mimetic pressures are those that make the firm imitate the other organizations in their environment. The coercive pressures are impacted by other firms that the organization relies upon while the normative pressures are as a result of the need to adopt new business practices that require a given technology and thus calls for its adoption (DiMaggio and Powell 1983, p.32).
The theory of planned behavior was developed by Icek Ajzen in the year 1985. It provides that there are psychological processes that enable people and organizations to put up with a behavior. Incontrast to others, the theory explains the micro elements of an organization- the individuals that make up an organization, and their influence to the adoption of technological innovations. It is a micro theory that focuses on the processes behind the bahaviour of individuals towards change. The processes emerge from intentions that are influenced by various beliefs such as the individual’s attitude towards the practice. The factors include the subjective norm and the perceived behavior control. The theory is used to address why organizations engage in technological innovations and examines the impact of the decision to adopt the innovations. The subjective norms combine with the perceived behavior control to determine the organization's attitude towards the change. The position that the group develops towards the innovation determines whether the organization adopts the innovation or not (Ajzen 1985, p. 22).
The theory of Technology Acceptance Model was proposed by Fred Davis and Richard Bagozzi in the year 1989. It provides that organizations are rational decision makers. Specifically, they indulge in constant calculations to evaluate the relevant behavior or beliefs when forming their attitude to a given behavior. Consequently, the individuals form an attitude towards the behavior . The theory employs expectancy – value model to calculate the attitude values towards innovations that are created by individuals . Similar to the planned behavior theory, it pays attention to the micro environment in the organization by paying attention to the individual level of analysis. (Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw 1989, p. 105).
The theory’s is widly used to explain the source of attitudes developed by organizations towards the innovation. The total attitude towards an innovation includes the attitude towards the innovation, multiplied by the attitude towards the outcome of adopting the innovation.In conclusion, the expected outcome from the adoption of a given innovation plays a great role in determining the attitude developed by the organization towards the innovation. The attitude further determines the decision to adopt or not to adopt the innovation ( Alharthi, et al., 2014, p.56)
The table below indicates the different kinds of cloud computing evaluation used by different studies
Theoretical methodAnalyzed variablesMethodsData and ContextAuthorTOE and DOI Technological context 
Service quality
Usefulness
Security
Complexity
IT Infrastructure readiness
Feasibility
Trust
Privacy risk
Organizational context 
organization size.
Organization culture
Organization structure
Cost
Environmental context 
Regulatory concern
External pressure
Culture
Industry type
Preserved benefits
Direct benefits
In Direct benefits
T-test analysis
Regression Analysis
Survey
4 Saudi government organizations
169 respondents
Saudi Arabia
(Alsanea and Barth, 2014)
DOI and TOE
Technological context 
Relative Advantage
Complexity
Compatibility
Organizational context 
Organization size.
Organizational culture
Organization structure
Regression Analysis
F and T-statistics
Phone interview with hospital IT
managers’ + Survey
sample size=110
U.S. hospitalsLee Terence, 2015DOI and TOEBusiness Dimension
Business Competitiveness
Business Environment
Technology dimension
ICT infrastructure
Technology innovation
Technology Readiness
Government dimension
E-government