Navigating uncertainty. Isomorphic pressures in cloud computing adoption

Abstract

This chapter studies the adoption of cloud computing technology under conditions of uncertainty and thereby advances our understanding of four isomorphic pressures that contribute to managerial decision-making. The uncertainty associated with technology adoption decision-making for highly novel and untested technologies, like cloud computing at the time of the empirical work for this study, limits the possibilities for rational decision-making processes. The research finds support for economic and sociological forces exerting pressures on organisations, leading to greater similarity in their decision-making about the adoption of cloud computing services. The findings of the study uniquely allowed all four types of isomorphic pressures to be integrated into the technology adoption decision, by showing how different isomorphic pressures emerge and are in turn replaced along a technology adoption decision-making life cycle. This was made possible by being able to effectively distinguish all four types of isomorphic pressures, which for competitive isomorphism can be especially challenging. The findings advance our understanding of not only managerial decision-making in technology adoption processes but also our understanding of the theory of isomorphism, by highlighting the dynamic nature of isomorphic pressures along a decision-making life cycle.