A Quantitative Study of Perceived Security Threats and IaaS Adoption in Retail Firms

摘要

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a service model of cloud computing, which is widely believed to become the fifth utility, succeeding water, electricity, gas, and telephony. This new computing paradigm is transforming the delivery of information technology (IT) services and has the potential of increasing the business value of IT. Despite the benefits of IaaS, companies in the United States are slow to adopt this new technology. Researchers that investigated perceived security in relation to cloud adoption had limited emphasis on cloud service models such as IaaS. Security risk exposure in the cloud varies for IaaS, software as a service (SaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS) service models. Furthermore, there is limited research on IaaS adoption in retail firms. In this study, retail firms refer to store, non-store, small, medium, and large firms in the retail sector. The purpose of this quantitative non-experimental study was to investigate the relationship between perceived security threats and the adoption of IaaS in retail firms. The theoretical basis for this study is rooted in the technology acceptance model and the protection motivation theory. The population for this study was IT security professionals and IT security managers employed by U.S. retail firms. Linear multiple regression analysis was carried out on the data collected from 142 participants. Findings of this study show that perceived usefulness and perceived ease were significant factors in the behavioral intention to use IaaS in retail firms. Perceived severity of security threats and perceived security vulnerability were not significant factors in the behavioral intention to use IaaS in retail firms. Based on the findings of this study, IaaS providers should continue to improve IaaS features and functionality that retail firms perceived to be useful and easy to use.