An integrative framework of comparing SaaS adoption for core and non-core business operations: An empirical study on Hong Kong industries

Software as a Service (SaaS), which offers the possibility to cover both core and non-core business operations of a company, has profoundly transformed traditional outsourcing approaches. As SaaS represents promising solutions for a variety of business processes, it is important to identify a theoretical framework to evaluate SaaS adoption for these two types of operations. We propose an integrative framework to evaluate SaaS adoption by including four perspectives–economic savings, strategic influences, management attitudes toward ownership and vendor’s service quality; and formulate hypotheses to predict the difference in SaaS adoption for core and non-core business operations. We validate our framework using data from 269 companies across different industries in Hong Kong. The results support the integrative framework. Perceived cost advantage has a positive influence on SaaS adoption for non-core business operations, whereas a gap in IT capabilities has a positive influence on SaaS adoption for core business operations. Furthermore, perceived service quality has a positive influence, and management attitude toward ownership and control has a negative influence on SaaS adoption for both types of operations.