Investigating the Role of Business-IT Alignment in the Software-as-a-Service Adoption Decision: A Preliminary Model

The study investigates the role of business-IT alignment in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) adoption decision. Building on the provisions of business-IT alignment and Institutional Isomorphism Theory, the study proposes a multi-layered model explaining antecedents of the propensity to adopt SaaS. The model is then verified drawing from the opinions of 154 Polish IT practitioners and employing the Partial Least Squares (PLS) research approach. The results obtained in PLS analysis illustrate that business-IT alignment plays a central role in the explanation of the propensity to adopt SaaS, influencing the decision to adopt SaaS both directly and indirectly through perceived positive impact on productivity. The results also highlight that the perceived SaaS flexibility, cost advantage and technology advantage are significant direct antecedents of business-IT alignment. In addition, professional influence and external pressure turned out to indirectly impact business-IT alignment.