Investigating the Determinants of IT Professionals' Intention to Use Cloud-Based Applications and Solutions

Abstract

Using a sample of 155 IT professionals from private and government organisations in Saudi Arabia, the authors tested a model of cloud-based applications adoption that is influenced by individual characteristics (represented by personal innovativeness in the domain of IT), organisational context (represented by the accessibility of the technology), technological context (represented by perceived vulnerabilities) and social context (represented by social image). The model explained 74% of the intention to use cloud-based applications. The findings show that accessibility of the technology, perceived vulnerabilities, individual characteristics and social image are all important determinants for using cloud applications and solutions. The findings will potentially contribute to research and practice by revealing the crucial factors that will impact IT professionals' intention to adopt cloud computing in the context of developing countries in the Arab world. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are presented.