Abstract
This paper provides an exploratory empirical survey of the diffusion of Application Service Providers (ASPs). It does do so by presenting a web survey among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition to that it presents a study on one specific ASP and its clients. The research questions are: how is the ASP concept diffused among SMEs and who are the users among SMEs? The concept, ASP, includes software vendors and an ASP enterprise which acts as a third-party firm in a business model. For its clients the concept forms a strategy to rent applications and organise maintenance of their Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The web survey shows that some knowledge of the ASP concept is widely spread among SMEs. However, a closer examination shows that the knowledge of what the ASP concept actually means is limited. This is seen as one reason why the ASP concept has not taken off among SMEs. This reason is related to the question about trust; in order to trust an innovation there is a need to be knowledgeable about the innovation. The conclusion is that ASPs need to be more explicit about their offer. They also need to show how adoption of the ASP concept affects the adopting organisation.
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Johansson, B. (2004). Diffusion of Application Service Provision Among Smes. In: Fitzgerald, B., Wynn, E. (eds) IT Innovation for Adaptability and Competitiveness. TDIT 2004. IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, vol 141. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8000-X_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8000-X_21
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