Research On The Impact Of Cloud Software Customization On Buyer-Seller Relationship Performance

With the development of information technologies such as Internet,big data,artificial intelligence and cloud computing,digital technology is fully integrated into the human world,which has been playing an important role in China’s political,economic,social,cultural,and ecological civilization construction and other fields,and at the same time has a profound impact on people’s production and life.In this significant period of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation in the world,to adapt to the current situation,respond to the call of the country government and maintain competitiveness,the needs of firms for digital transformation are rapidly increasing.Among ways to realize digital transformation,the use of cloud software has become one of the important ways for firms to implement digital transformation with the rapid development of SaaS(Software as a Service)platform.Cloud software greatly reduces the cost ’for firms to use digital software,correspondingly lowers the threshold for firms to carry out digital construction and promotes China’s manufacturing industry to move towards a higher level of development.However,when designing software,due to the completely different industries,business processes,business models,products,and customer behaviors of the buyer firms,it is difficult for cloud software providers to develop a standardized version to meet the unique needs of them.Therefore,for the suppliers of cloud software,meeting the individual needs of buyer firms has attracted great attention and it is particularly important to customize the design of cloud software for different buyer firms.Based on incomplete contract theory,this dissertation explores the paradox of the influence of cloud software customization on the relationship performance between buyers and sellers,and analyzes three contextual factors for the "efficiency-security concern" paradox,such as external institutional arrangements that restrict the distribution of power between the two parties(government support and legal enforceability),the balance of powers between the two parties(digital specific assets and digital experience)and ex-post governance mechanism(process control and outcome control).This dissertation adopts survey method to test the research hypotheses.After rigorous questionnaire design and small sample test,this dissertation determines the final questionnaire and collected 372 questionnaire data from buyer firms of cloud software.Using multiple regression analysis,Bootstrapping mediation test,and simple slope analysis,this dissertation finds that cloud software customization not only improves the efficiency of buyer firms,but also makes buyer firms have more security concerns,then efficiency and security concerns have a contradictory effect on the relationship performance between buyers and sellers.The improvement of relationship performance can promote the long-term cooperation between buyers and sellers,which is of great value to both cloud software suppliers and buyer firms.Therefore,combining with the incomplete contract theory,this dissertation.puts forward the important contextual factors that affect the smooth progress of the transaction from three aspects:the external institutional arrangement that restricts the distribution of the power of both parties,the balance of the power of both.parties and the ex-post governance mechanism.Among them,for the improvement of firm customer efficiency by cloud software customization,the digital specific assets of buyer firms can promote the positive role of cloud software customization to enhance efficiency;Process control and outcome control implemented by buyer firms can also promote the positive effect between cloud software customization and efficiency.As for the increase of the security concerns caused by cloud software customization,the process control and outcome control implemented by buyer firms can restrain the role between cloud software customization and security concerns of buyer firms;At the same time,local legal enforceability can also inhibit the relationship between cloud software customization and security concerns of buyer firms.Based on the context of cloud software transaction,this dissertation studies the"efficiency-security concerns" paradox caused by cloud software customization,which has important theoretical and practical contributions.In terms of theoretical contributions:Firstly,this study explores customization based on the context of cloud software,which enriches the scenario of customization research.Secondly,combined with incomplete contract theory,this dissertation found the double-edged sword effect of customized cloud software on buyer firms,and found a new mechanism for the impact of customization on buyer-seller relationship performance.Finally,combined with the incomplete contract theory,this dissertation explores the boundary conditions for cloud software customization and its double-edged sword effect on buyer firms,finds out the contextual factors that amplify the positive effect of cloud software customization from the perspective of firm capability and channel governance,and discovers the contextual factors that weaken the negative effect of cloud software customization from the perspective of external institutional environment and channel governance,which enriches the boundary of the incomplete contract theory in the context of customization research,and provides directional guidance for buyer firms who use cloud software to expand the utility.In addition,this dissertation’s contribution to management practice includes the following aspects:Firstly,this dissertation explores customization based on cloud software,which enriches the application scenarios of customization practice and provides important implications for Chinese firms to realize digital transformation by using cloud software in the digital era.Secondly,the conclusion of this dissertation provides important management implications for firms using customized cloud software and fully realize the tension faced by customization of cloud software,that is,while improving efficiency,firms using customized cloud software should also pay great attention to the security problems that may be caused by customization while improving efficiency.Finally,the conclusion of this dissertation will help firm decision makers who use customized cloud software to adopt various strategies to reconcile this tension when facing the paradox of "efficiency-security concern"generated by the software.