Kristandl, Gerhard ORCID: 0000-0002-8461-0935 (2016) Cloud security, emotions and management accounting – a neoinstitutional-behavioural approach on decision-making on cloud adoption in SMBs. In: 10th European Network for Research in Organisational & Accounting Change (ENROAC) conference, 3 - 4 June 2015, Galway, Ireland. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Cloud technology found its way into many businesses in the last five years or so. More and more business functions are being moved to the cloud, and with it data is moved outside the traditional boundaries of companies (Blandford 2011). As such, cloud technology has the ability to become a disruptive technology that can enable especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to access IT that has hitherto been too costly for them. Considering the purported benefits of cloud technology and the involvement of the management accounting function, it comes as a surprise that studies about cloud adoption have found that in spite of the benefits, the deployment of this new technology is – if at all - relatively slow (Strauss et al 2015; Bean 2011). I hypothesise that this is mainly due to a perception that it is still deemed risky to move data to the internet, as it is assumed that anybody with adequate technical skills could fairly easily access it. Such a perception may be exacerbated by data leak scandals like the recent iCloud celebrity photo hack (BBC 2014). Major security breaches like this often lead to the negative media coverage, seemingly swaying decision-makers not to adopt the cloud. This strong external influence that stalls technological change seems at odds with the responsibility of the management accounting function to provide a full and coherent decision-relevant information basis.

Motivated by the results of a CIMA-study co-published by the author of this paper (Strauss et al 2015), the aim of this discussion is to develop explanations for this seemingly strong influence of an external negative perception on internal decision-making on cloud technology. I aim to develop theoretical explanations for this alleged phenomenon drawing on neoinstitutional sociology and behavioural studies that aim to explain the impact of emotions on cognitive evaluation and decision-making processes. Based on these conceptual deliberations, this paper also attempts to highlight ways forward for the management accountant in order to overcome external influences such as negative public perception that might influence management decisions, as well as a way forward for policy makers in the medium-to-long run.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Cloud computing, cloud adoption, risk-as-emotions
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business > Department of Accounting & Finance
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:37
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/14915

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