Married for Life? A Cloud Computing Client-Provider Relationship continuance Model

Cloud computing is moving from the pre-adoption to the post-adoption phase with many cloud client organizations having established relationships with cloud providers. Hence, the most critical cloud computing question for information technology (IT) executives shifts from the issue of adopting cloud computing to the issue of managing existing relationships with cloud providers. Under which conditions do client organizations continue relationships with cloud providers? This paper synthesizes extant cloud computing, IT continuance, and IT sourcing literatures and builds on insights from key informant interviews. It develops a theoretical model that explains and predicts the intention of cloud clients to continue relationships with cloud providers.