CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable resources are provided as a virtualized service. The evolution of cloud computing represents a convergence of two trends: information technology efficiency and organizational agility. The purpose of this paper was to examine the critical success factors for cloud computing acceptance that lead to adoption in higher education systems of this technology and improving the quality of higher education services. Although the critical factors for cloud computing adoption have been identified in previous studies, few have specifically explored this technology in higher education institutions despite the fact that it has important impacts on the quality of education services in universities. We examined a range of predictors relating to the adoption and usage in higher education of this technology. We build on the literature by examining the technology acceptance model and we test our model on a sample. Structural equation modeling is employed to examine the inter-correlations among the proposed constructs. The research results revels constructive suggestions to academic staff universities, and cloud computing providers to increase the likelihood of adopting this technology. Based on a survey, this study finds that trust, privacy, security, infrastructure standardization in cloud computing are the main critical factors. The findings allow universities' decision makers encourage the adoption and usage of cloud computing in education institutions. Finally, the implications for research and practice and future research directions are discussed.