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Cloud computing is a major enabling technology for Industry 4.0 and the Big Data era. However, cloud-based firms, who establish their businesses on cloud platforms, have received scant attention in the extant operations management (OM) literature. To narrow this gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate cloud-based firms from an operations strategy perspective.

A two-phase multi-method approach was adopted. In the first phase, content analysis of 27 reports from cloud-based firms was conducted, aided by text mining keyword extraction. Two data-related operations capabilities were identified and hypotheses were posited regarding the relationships between data resources (DR), operations capabilities and firm growth (FG). In the second phase, a sample of 190 cloud-based firms was collected. Seemingly unrelated regression and bootstrapping method were employed to test the proposed hypotheses using the survey data.

The content analysis indicates data as a key resource and both data processing capability and data transformational capability as critical operations capabilities of cloud-based firms. FG is regarded as a top priority in the cloud context. The regression results indicate that DR and the two capabilities contribute to the growth of cloud-based firms. Moreover, a follow-up bootstrapping analysis reveals that the mediating effects of the two capabilities vary between different types of FG.

To the authors’ best knowledge, this is one of the first OM studies on cloud-based firms. This study extends the operations strategy literature by identifying and testing the key operations capabilities and priorities of cloud-based firms. It also provides insightful implications for industrial practitioners.

This study aims to investigate whether cloud-based accounting information system (AIS) usage contributes to AIS effectiveness, with firm size acting as a moderator. Furthermore, the role of AIS effectiveness as a mediator in the relationship between cloud-based AIS usage and organizational performance (OP) is further evaluated. In this context, the study is a bridge to show that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) try to apply cloud accounting to improve profitability, thereby funding more social-environmental activities on the path to sustainability.

The study conducted an online survey of chief accountants in Vietnam’s SMEs. Data from 193 responses were gathered and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings show that cloud-based AIS usage considerably contributes to AIS effectiveness and OP and that AIS effectiveness has a beneficial influence on OP. Furthermore, the study shows that firm size moderates the relationship between cloud-based AIS usage and AIS effectiveness. Further findings show that cloud-based AIS usage influences OP via AIS effectiveness.

The findings of this study expand the existing body of knowledge on cloud-based AIS usage and benefit managers when formulating their business information models. In practice, SMEs need to increase the use of cloud-based AIS to better manage AIS. Enhancing profitability through cloud accounting also determines the ability to finance sustainability activities in SMEs.

One of the practical values of this study is the impact on Vietnam’s socioeconomic growth and sustainability. With cloud-based AIS, SMEs may enhance information and system quality, boost system usage frequency, gain satisfaction and increase performance. Furthermore, the comprehensiveness of AIS from cloud-based AIS usage is also a condition for SMEs to enhance accountability for social-environmental information in future sustainable reporting. These advantages improve the efficiency of strategic decision-making, hence increasing SMEs’ competitiveness and social-environmental performance. These benefits will work directly or indirectly toward fostering broader socioeconomic and environmental sustainability in developing economies.

To open a bright perspective of cloud-based AIS usage for AIS effectiveness as well as OP in SMEs toward sustainability in a developing economy, the authors conducted an exploratory study because this topic is quite new in these firms, especially in a developing economy such as Vietnam. These discoveries partly support SMEs to quickly achieve sustainable development goals in the future.

The importance of integrating cloud-based big data analytics software with enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms is not clearly understood. Specifically, this study aims to look into firms that implemented SAP during the boom of ERP implementations. Further, this study aims to look into the type of cloud-based big data analytics software that those firms installed when cloud-based packages started to be available.

This study specifically looks at productivity and the sources of productivity, such as technical progress and efficiency change, using a non-parametric approach that does not constrain the analysis to any production function.

This study found that by the time cloud-based big data analytics software started to be available, SAP-adopters already had a competitive advantage over the non-SAP adopters manifested through productivity and specifically through technology and not efficiency. Later, when the same firms decided to integrate their ERP platforms with cloud-based big data analytics software, the firms that had installed SAP already had an initial advantage over the non-SAP-adopters.

In support of the theory of technology organization environment (Tornatzky and Fleisher, 1990) and Posner's theoretical framework (Posner, 1961), a cloud-based big data analytics software will not change the relative position that firms have in the industry, so a cloud-based big data analytics software by itself will not provide a competitive advantage over competitors. Still, it will ensure that the preliminary technological gap that SAP-adopters already had is not magnified.

Knowing the sources of productivity improvement and technological improvements will give managers greater leverage when negotiating budgets, negotiating long-term contracts in better terms and in the decision process.

This study fills a research gap by looking into the implementation of a cloud-based big data analytics software with ERP.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of Cloud technologies on management practices and business strategies. It considers the role of human resource management (HRM) departments in supporting the organisational changes required for the introduction and integration of Cloud business strategies.

The study uses a qualitative exploratory research approach. It utilises the resource view of the firm and transaction costs economics (TCE) to support the analysis. It synthesises the literature with the qualitative interview data.

Cloud business models require organisations to focus on the nexus of business strategies and information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities. HRM departments can play a positive role in this process by better integrating ICT sections into business decision‐making processes. Cloud technologies may further change ICT worker functions and roles.

Qualitative research approaches may limit the generality of the findings. However they allowed for an in‐depth analysis of complex Cloud related data that quantitative approaches may not have elicited.

The paper outlines a strategic “holistic” approach for organisations shifting to Cloud‐based business models.

The paper examines the likely impacts of Cloud technologies on potential ICT worker redundancies.

The Cloud as the nexus of ICT and business and the potential role of HRM in facilitating shifts to Cloud business models have been under‐researched areas to date. The paper is therefore of value to ICT, HRM and business strategy focused academics and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper, building on previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) and business performance, is an exploratory study of how the use of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects the business performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey method is used to capture perceptions of how cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects business performance in SMEs. The study assumes that although accounting/finance systems are generally regarded as one element of a firm’s structural capital; the introduction of a cloud-based infrastructure in the accounting/finance area has the potential to positively impact on all three elements of a firm’s IC. Based on the survey data collected, a conceptual model was formulated to test the relationship between cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure and business performance through the prism of firms’ IC.

The results indicate that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure has a positive and statistically significant impact on human capital and relational capital. On structural capital, although positive, the relationship is not statistically significant. On the relationship between the three components of IC and business performance, all three elements are both positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, the R2 value generated for the ultimate endogenous construct in the hypothesised conceptual model, i.e. “Business Performance” is 71.3 per cent, indicating significant model explanatory power.

The findings suggest further more in-depth research is needed to explore in detail the effects of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure on both the IC and subsequent business performance of SMEs.

Studies on the effects of cloud computing on accounting are scarce. This exploratory research suggests that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure can potentially improve the business performance of SMEs. While a valuable finding in itself, more research in this area is to be encouraged.

Theorising from the intersection of supply chain and information systems (IS) literature, this study aims to investigate supply chain integration (SCI) as a multidimensional construct in the context of cloud-based technology and explores the effect of cloud-enabled SCI on supply chain performance, which will eventually improve firm sustainability from a resource-based view (RBV). In addition, the moderating effect of top management is explored.

Using cross-sectional survey data collected from a sample of 105 Australian retail firms, this study used structural equation modelling to test the hypothesised relationship of cloud-enabled SCI with performance in a theoretical model.

Results show that cloud-based technology has positive effect on SCI, and the cloud-enabled SCI is positively related to supply chain performance which eventually influenced firm sustainability. Further, top management intervention moderates the relationship between supplier and internal integration with supply chain performance. But it is found to have no moderating effect on the relationship between customer integration and supply chain performance.

Recognising the potential benefits of emerging cloud-based technologies reported in this study, retail managers need to understand that higher order SCI requires the support of cloud-based technology to improve supply chain performance and firm sustainability.

This research extends prior research of information and communication technologies-enabled SCI and its effect on supply chain performance which overly remains inconsistent. In addition, IS literature abounds with discussion on cloud computing technology per se, and its adoption in supply chain is overly rhetoric. This study fills this gap by conceptualising the multiple dimensions of SCI enabled by cloud-based technology and the way it affects supply chain and firm sustainable performance. Investigating SCI in context of cloud-based technology is a unique contribution in this study. The moderating effect of top management in this decision also adds to the current body of literature.

This study aims to indicate the advantages of using cloud computing services, including the ways in which firms use cloud-based services to achieve accessibility, better communication, flexibility and effective provision of services. However, little evidence has been obtained related to the effectiveness of applying cloud computing services to supply management chains.

In this study, a sample of 223 top 1,000 manufacturing firms in Taiwan that had implemented cloud-based supply chain management systems (CSCMs) was surveyed to determine what kind of internal resources in these companies were allocated to this implementation effort, how collaborative relationships were established in the existing supply chain to help make the transitions successful, how well their systems are working now that they have been implemented and whether these new systems have improved cycle time performance and the overall performance of their organizations. The study also examines the interrelationships among these variables.

The results reveal that, from the perspective of the managers who were surveyed, an effective allocation of internal organizational resources does have a positive, strong effect on external CSCM conditions. They also showed that when the relationship between internal and external resources is well constructed, the result is that CSCM improves supply chain management cycle time performance, which, in turn, leads to positive organizational performance.

The study reports some useful insights from the managers of CSCM systems related to how the execution of CSCM solutions can improve cycle time and organizational performance by enhancing internal organizational management and joint collaboration among supply chain partners. The findings from this survey will be useful to managers who are considering creating cloud-based supply management systems in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the value creation potential of cloud computing in inter-firm partnerships. It examines how cloud-based IT infrastructure capabilities in flexibility and integration contribute to partnering agility and, consequently, firm performance. This study also introduces business lifecycle and market turbulence as internal and external context variables, respectively, to investigate the different roles of cloud computing in value creation.

A questionnaire was used to collect data from 184 client firms of the largest cloud computing services provider in China (Alibaba Cloud). The theoretical model was tested using PLS analysis.

Cloud infrastructure (CI) flexibility has a positive effect on partnering agility, while the effect of CI integration on partnering agility is moderated by business lifecycle and market turbulence.

The surveyed firms are all Alibaba Cloud clients, which may limit the generalization of the findings.

The study suggests that besides the cost benefits, the value creation aspect of cloud computing should also be emphasized in research and practice. The study provides a new perspective to understand the business value of cloud computing in inter-firm partnerships.

The study suggests that the flexibility-related and integration-related features of cloud computing can create value for firms by facilitating inter-firm collaboration in exploiting business opportunities.

The study aims to focus on the present automation status of the college libraries with an objective to offer enhanced Web-based library service on an affordable virtualization on cloud computing model.

With Infrastructure as a Service (Infrastructure as a Service) delivery model, this study demonstrates how libraries of colleges/smaller institutes could be connected to cloud Library Management System infrastructure through internet or dedicated point-to-point WAN connectivity. The Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model depicts how college libraries could form library consortium at its own private cloud environment with installation of the required LMS application, database, middleware and other prerequisites.

A cloud-based consortium approach for the college libraries will reduce the cost of purchasing hardware equipment and setting up of infrastructural facilities; relieve libraries of involving additional IT skilled manpower; foster collaborative approach with shared environment and minimise duplication in resource subscription.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind in the light of shifting of infrastructure, software and hardware requirements of smaller libraries for cooperative sharing in both IaaS and SaaS cloud platform. The study delineates step by step how college libraries could effectively leverage the cooperative cloud architecture for enhanced library services to reach wider user community.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the digitalization of operational processes and activities in lean manufacturing firms and explore the associated learning implications through the lens of cumulative capability theory.

Adopting a multiple-case design, we examine four cases of digitalization initiatives within lean manufacturing firms. We collected data through semi-structured interviews and direct observations during site visits.

The study uncovers the development of learning capabilities as a result of integrating lean and digitalization. We find that digitalization in lean manufacturing firms contributes to the development of both routinized and evolutionary learning capabilities in a cumulative fashion.

The study adds nuance to the limited theoretical understanding of the integration of lean and digitalization by showing how it cumulatively develops the learning capabilities of lean manufacturing firms. As such, the study supports the robustness of cumulative capability theory. We further contribute to research by offering empirical support for the cumulative nature of learning.