Product adoption and customer behavior · Cross-sectional empirical survey study grounded in transaction-cost theory, the resource-based view, and the theory of planned behavior; the research model tests SaaS-adoption drivers across application types.
Drivers of SaaS-Adoption – An Empirical Study of Different Application Types
Alexander Benlian, Thomas Hess, Peter Buxmann (2009). Drivers of SaaS-Adoption – An Empirical Study of Different Application Types. Business & Information Systems Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-009-0068-x
Plain-English take
Adoption patterns differed by application type. Social influence, pre-existing attitude toward SaaS adoption, adoption uncertainty, and strategic value were the strongest and most consistent drivers; firm size did not matter because large enterprises and SMEs had similar adoption rates.
How much weight to give this
2/5 Evidence needs cautious interpretation
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Cross-sectional empirical survey study grounded in transaction-cost theory, the resource-based view, and the theory of planned behavior; the research model tests SaaS-adoption drivers across application types.
Survey data from 297 firms in Germany, yielding 374 valid response items across different industries.
See the full paper for comparison conditions and analysis.
Publisher page checked; full-text methods not independently reviewed.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the checked publisher page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does drivers of saas-adoption – an empirical study of different application types show about customer decisions or business outcomes?
Design
Cross-sectional empirical survey study grounded in transaction-cost theory, the resource-based view, and the theory of planned behavior; the research model tests SaaS-adoption drivers across application types.
Sample and setting
Survey data from 297 firms in Germany, yielding 374 valid response items across different industries.
Reported result
What the study found
Adoption patterns differed by application type. Social influence, pre-existing attitude toward SaaS adoption, adoption uncertainty, and strategic value were the strongest and most consistent drivers; firm size did not matter because large enterprises and SMEs had similar adoption rates.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The evidence is a cross-sectional survey of German firms and measures adoption drivers rather than randomized growth interventions or longitudinal retention, limiting causal and geographic generalization. Full article methods and correction history were not independently reviewed.
Possible founder application
Use this study as a bounded example of drivers of saas-adoption – an empirical study of different application types; assess whether its population, intervention and outcome match your own decision.
Evidence access
Publisher article page; full-text access varies and was not established in this check.
Publisher page directly retrieved; candidate metadata and reported result checked against that page. Full methods were not independently reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.