THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING ACCORDING TO BRAZILIAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS

• Published in: Revista de administração de emprêsas 2019-01, Vol.59 (1), p.16-28
• Main Authors: Marchisotti, Gustavo Guimarães, Joia, Luiz Antonio, De Carvalho, Rodrigo Baroni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Availability; Capital expenditures; Cloud Computing; Collective representation; Content analysis; Information management; information security; Information technology; Information Technology infrastructure management; Internet; Privacy; Questionnaires; social representation theory; Software services; word evoking technique
• ISSN: 0034-7590; 2178-938X
• DOI: 10.1590/S0034-759020190103

This study seeks to identify the social representation of Cloud Computing as perceived by Brazilian Information Technology (IT) professionals. Using accessibility criteria, 221 IT professionals were chosen as respondents to an online questionnaire. Using Social Representation Theory (SRT), the techniques of free evocation of words, the Verges' framework, and implicative, lexical, and content analysis were performed. Analyzing the social representation of cloud computing yielded associated words such as cloud, storage, availability, Internet, virtualization, and security, implying that Brazilian IT professionals have a primarily operational, rather than strategic, approach to cloud computing. This paradigm is based on issues related to the safety and availability of cloud data, and the results match other scientific literature on this subject. The theoretical contribution of this research lies in the use of SRT. The integrated use of implicative, lexical, and content analyses may be used for a better examination of constructs in the future.