A Study of Service Quality Factors Affecting on the Continuous Usage Intention of Cloud Service Users

Abstract

A number of cloud services have appeared and been growing in worldwide recently. According as the continuous diffusion of cloud computing services, the business research of cloud computing and its services have become accelerated. However, the continuance use of cloud service has not studied fully enough by academic researchers. This study focuses on the continuous usage of cloud service reflecting the perspective of personal cloud service users in public. It presents the factors that affect the continuance intention of cloud service users, and attempts to find appropriate models which can explain the continuance intention by comparing the theoretical models. With extensive reviews on the prior research, this study examines three models for the continuance intention of cloud service users, based on the expectation-confirmation theory (ECT), service quality (SERVQUAL), and modified SERVQUAL each by PLS-SEM analysis in the same context of cloud service by using identical sample data set (N=229). The results show that both ECT model and SERVQUAL model are effective to explain continuous use intention of cloud service. These models have already been generalized by the previous IS researches, but the context of this study is quite different compared to the others of the previous studies. Moreover, two factors in the modified SERVQUAL model of this study are newly found as reflective indicators for cloud service quality: compatibility and security. Thus, they are regarded as influential factors of cloud service quality, and it cannot be ruled out the possibility of instrument elaboration with these two factors. These results provide interesting insights on the service quality factors within the SERVQUAL-based IS continuance model. This study can be a little stepping stone for academic researchers and business practitioners who have interest in user-centric perspective. Also, the more articulated models for the continuance of cloud service use are expected to be developed in future research.