Enhancing cloud-based information systems performance in export business: a blockchain-driven model in big data era

Cloud computing offers a revolutionary platform that provides scalable, flexible, and affordable information technology (IT) capabilities over the Internet. As a result, many companies have migrated their enterprise systems to cloud environments from the conventional legacy systems that run on-premises. Cloud computing platforms combined with big data offer export firms enhanced capabilities to process export-related big data. In today’s data-driven world, big data has become extremely important for exporters to gain insight into what factors are driving their exports. Identifying key success factors is critical for every exporter who wants to remain competitive in the export market. Big data analytics helps export companies gain greater insight into these key factors by allowing them to process large volumes of trade data. Coupling blockchain technology and the cloud allows data to be more secure, transparent, and traceable. Blockchain technology in a cloud environment allows exporters to increase efficiency within their supply chain while decreasing costs. They can also benefit from an incorruptible and decentralized ledger, helping them to meet industry compliance. Big data can be applied to gain greater visibility and efficiency within the supply chain. The underlying theory for this study is the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework and investigates the impact of blockchain adoption, transparency on blockchain, regulatory compliance on blockchain, and sustainability initiatives on blockchain on Cloud-Based Information Systems (CBIS) effectiveness within export companies. Big data will be integrated as an additional component of technology from the TOE framework. Blockchain and big data are commonly conflated; as such, the analytics of large amounts of distributed data from worldwide trade will be taken into consideration. For this study, SmartPLS 3.2 was used to collect survey data from respondents and assess the reflective model proposed. Results indicated that factors such as blockchain-ready IT infrastructure, availability of decentralized data, agility of smart contracts, transparent cryptocurrency audits, and external sources of sustainability significantly contributed to the effectiveness of CBIS utilized by export companies. Big data infrastructure was used to support those factors through features such as scalability, storage, computing power, and machine learning.