Ascertaining factors that influence the intention to adopt enterprise architecture among Malaysian public sector organisations – a pilot contemplation

Abstract

Enterprise Architecture provides a holistic view that effectively integrates different domains in business, data, application, and information in organisations. Different notions of Enterprise Architecture (EA) models could be found in the literature which are primarily based on various factors and fragmented perspectives. However, current EA models are more focused on the post-adoption or implementation phase of EA. There is little attention paid on the adoption model of EA. It is also found that the organisational adoption of EA is still missing from technological, organisational, and environmental perspectives. Based on inferences from previous study, very few had attempted to find significant factors using the theoretical approach of Information Systems in the context of EA adoption. Therefore, this research is designed to investigate the factors that influence EA adoption at the organisational level and propose a conceptual model during adoption phase and early phase of the EA cycle. The research method used questionnaires administered to key participants from 23 Malaysian public sector organisations. The findings have shown significant factors influencing the intention to adopt EA. The strength of relationship in coercive pressure was the highest, followed by mimetic pressure. Furthermore, the complexity of EA did not have significant influence on the intention to adopt EA. Therefore, this study has addressed factors from the technological, organisational, and environmental perspectives that could influence the intention to adopt EA among Malaysian public sector organisations. The findings indicate that various pressures were the greatest influence in the adoption of EA.