Determinants of open source enterprise systems' adoption in Malaysia through managerial perspectives / Sharifah Fazlinda Shaik Ismail

The Open Source System (OSS) has seen significant adoption for the past 25 years. It has impacted not only by the intensity of the developer but it has also an impact on the organization as well. The selection and acquiring of the system does have an impact on the managerial decision. This study identifies the variables and the factors that have a direct effect on a manager's decision towards Open Source System (OSS) enterprise system adoption, particularly in Malaysia. Grounded by the Technology- Organization-Environment (TOE) theory, the research is initiated by inviting the managers in Malaysian organizations who implemented OSS. A survey was conducted via online OSS social communities and by sending emails to shortlisted public organizations taken from the Laporan Adoption Chart 2011 report by Malaysian Administration Modernization and Management Planning (MAMPU). A total of 124 organizations responded to the survey and the results showed that four out of six factors were found significant to this study. In the technological context, ‘perceived relative advantage’, ‘perceived compatibility and trialability’ and ‘perceived complexity’ factors were supported in the OSS adoption. In the organizational context, ‘management support, knowledge and expertise’ was identified as the supporting factor. Two factors in the environmental context which were rejected were the ‘technology skills and services’ and ‘platform long term viability’ although there were previous studies that agreed to this. The result of this study showed that these two factors were not being taken into consideration in order to implement OSS system.