Mediating role of cloud of things in improving performance of small and medium enterprises in the Indian context

Integration of cloud computing and the Internet of things can influence large as well as small-scale organizations in transforming their business systems for high performance. However, in developing nations like India, cloud of things is relatively novel, and there is a need for its proper understanding specifically, in small and medium scaled enterprises. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of cloud of things on the performance of small and medium scaled enterprises and the influence of various key factors namely security and privacy, perceived ease of use, top management support, perceived security risk, big data analytics, trust, customer-supplier intention, manufacturing infrastructure, IT support, knowledge sharing, and external environment support on cloud of things was analyzed. A sample of 290 responses from 96 Indian small and medium scaled enterprises was collected and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling methodologies were employed for the analysis. Results suggest that big data analytics, top management support, trust, perceived security risk, etc. require the mediating support of cloud of things. This study is useful for managers, policymakers, practitioners, and regulatory authorities to understand the importance of information, and the cloud of things, and further to formulate strategies to improve firm's performance by improving the information transparency across the value chain.