The effects of IT capabilities and delivery model on cloud computing success and firm performance for cloud supported processes and operations

• Organizations align IT-based capabilities with cloud delivery options to meet performance objectives.
• Managerial, technical and relational IT capability positively affect cloud success.
• Cloud success positively affects firm performance.
• The moderating effect of cloud strategy (public, private and hybrid) was partially significant.

Our study examines the effect of relational, managerial and technical IT-based capabilities on cloud computing success; and analyzes how this success impacts firm performance with respect to the processes and operations supported by cloud computing. Additionally, we investigated the complex relationships that exist between IT capabilities and the public, private and hybrid cloud delivery models. Data from a sample of 302 organizations were collected to empirically test our model. The results indicate that a relational IT capability is the most influential factor to facilitate cloud success compared to technical and managerial IT capabilities. Furthermore, an evaluation of the interrelationships indicates that the public and hybrid cloud delivery models may be more dependent on relational IT capabilities for cloud success while the flexibility and agility of the firm's internal IT (technical IT capability) facilitates the public cloud. We discuss how IT-based capabilities may be used to leverage cloud delivery models to positively influence the successful implementation of cloud computing, and ultimately, firm performance for the processes and operations supported by the cloud.