Essays on antecedents and consequences of cloud computing capabilities in organizations: an empirical analysis of field data

Cloud computing is widely recognized as a potential disruptive paradigm that changes how IT is consumed and business is conducted in various industries. Managerial and academic literature has shown that cloud computing may benefit firms in various ways such as cost savings, fast project development, and business innovation. Nevertheless, there are many different interpretations and perceptions of cloud computing about how to better prepare for and use it in the information systems (IS) literature. A systematic analysis is necessary to clarify the equivocal issues around cloud computing and guide managers to better understand and utilize cloud computing in practice. This dissertation addresses several important relationships around cloud computing using theoretical models and empirical data as a representation of how the questions about cloud computing may be investigated in the IS literature and how the findings may benefit organizations in using cloud computing. Therefore, the dissertation comprises three connected chapters that address one important antecedent of cloud computing adoption – internal IT modularity within firms and two important consequences – firm performance and strategic alliance formation. It is found that in order to better prepare for cloud computing adoption, firm users can do something themselves by modularizing their internal IT systems. Firms also need to know whether and how cloud computing, after all, can benefit their firm performance or other activities such as strategic alliance formation. The findings show that cloud computing overall and its various specific cloud services may promote firm performance directly or complementarily with internal enterprise resources. Cloud computing and its specific cloud services may also exert different effects on strategic alliance formation. This dissertation systematically addresses the issues around cloud computing in the IS literature and sheds lights on how such a study can be applied to help managers and decision makers in industries to better understand and use cloud computing to achieve their business goals.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Guo, Rui

Contributors dc:contributor

• Subramanyam, Ramanath
• Shaw, Michael J.
• Larson, Eric C.
• Tafti, Ali

• Cloud computing
• Modularity
• Firm performance
• Business value of IT
• Alliance

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Rui Guo

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/93011

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/93011