IT Innovations and Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Is Cloud Computing a Magic Ingredient for Egyptian Entrepreneurs?

Using the concept of affordances as an analytical lens, this study aims to understand the use of Cloud Computing (CC) by Egyptian entrepreneurs. The study analyses impact of CC on their businesses and its inhibiting and enabling factors. In general, Egyptian entrepreneurs have positive perceptions of CC and note its various actualized affordances: accessing information technology (IT) resources rapidly, broadening reach and transferring responsibility. The use of CC has yielded diverse effects: shortened time to market, reduced costs, a diversified audience and more useful feedback. We also identify what inhibits the use of CC, including transparency and corruption problems, limited support for online transactions, unsupportive government policies, low appreciation from the domestic market, cumbersome bureaucracy, account hacking and unreliable infrastructure. Finally, we also reveal some enabling factors, including institutional support, overseas market potential and CC uptake (i.e., growing use).