Investigating consumers’ reluctance to give up local hard drives after adopting the Cloud
| Date | 09 May 2016 |
| Pages | 152-166 |
| Published date | 09 May 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-06-2015-0021 |
| Author | Joanne E. McNeish,Anthony Francescucci,Ummaha Hazra |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology |
Investigating consumers’
reluctance to give up local hard
drives after adopting the Cloud
Joanne E. McNeish and Anthony Francescucci
Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto,
Canada, and
Ummaha Hazra
Institute for Innovation and Technology Management, Ryerson University,
Toronto, Canada
Abstract
Purpose – The next phase of hardware technology development is focused on alternative ways to
manage and store consumers’ personal content. However, even consumers who have adopted
Cloud-based services have demonstrated a reluctance to move all of their personal content into the
Cloud and continue to resist giving up local hard drives. This paper aims to investigate the
characteristics of local hard drives and the Cloud that lead to simultaneous use.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses content analysis of online comments and ten
depth interviews with simultaneous users of local hard drives and the Cloud.
Findings – Three factors inuence the resistance to giving up local hard drives. Simultaneous users
utilize local hard drives as a redundancy system and as a way to ensure the permanence of their digital
content. They are unsure of the Cloud’s ability to support their content creation, management and
storage activities (task-technology t).
Research limitations/implications – Study ndings are based on qualitative methods and thus
the results cannot be considered conclusive.
Practical implications – The authors speculate that it is unlikely that Cloud-only will fully replace
hard drives until these factors are understood and addressed by information technology developers.
Cloud service providers may not be aware of how little that users understand the Cloud. In contrast to
their certainty and condence in local hard drives, simultaneous users are confused as to what the Cloud
is and how it functions. This uncertainty exacerbates their risk perception and need for control.
Originality/value – This is the rst study exploring simultaneous use of local hard drives and the
Cloud with a view to understanding this behaviour in terms of the relative advantage of the incumbent
technology over the new technology.
Keywords Redundancy, Ambiguity of Task-Technology t, Permanence, Simultaneous use,
Resistance to discontinuing behaviour, The Cloud
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The next phase of hardware and software development is focused on alternative ways to
create, manage and store consumers’ personal content. The Cloud is currently the
front-runner as a replacement for local hard drives. Consumers have adopted Cloud-only
services in certain situations and applications often without realizing that they are doing
so (e.g. social media applications). However, they have also shown themselves to be
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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JICES
14,2
152
Received 21 June 2015
Revised 17 September 2015
Accepted 21 September 2015
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.14 No. 2, 2016
pp.152-166
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-06-2015-0021
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