Examining the Diffusion of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-Based Cloud Model Among Indian Firms: A Risk-Based Perspective

The study aims to identify the specific perceived risks that dissuade organizations from continuing the use of SaaS. Along with the inhibiting factors, the study also examines the role of IT governance in post adoption of SaaS. Based on the premise of prospect theory and resource based view, a mixed method study (quantitative study followed by a semi structured interview) was conducted with the IT leaders of SaaS consuming organizations to understand the phenomenon in the context. From our study, we found that among the various risks, financial risks and security and privacy risks have a greater influence on perceived risk and consequently on the intention to continuance use of SaaS. The study also reveals that the organizations are skeptical about increasing their usage level of SaaS, and they would do so on specific cases, which have less asset specificity. Further, it also indicates that regulated organizations are less inclined to increase their SaaS usage. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one on post adoption use of SaaS among Indian firms using the risk perspective.