## 5 Conclusions  
In this paper, we investigated how various trends and factors influence changes in SMEs' perspectives on cloud computing. Montenegro serves as a highly suitable case study, systematically presenting the whole spectrum of positive and negative influencing factors. These include the national contexts of EU integration and orientation towards digitalization, global aspects of digital innovation and the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent cyberattacks that paralyzed national e-services for 3-9 months, increasing skepticism and resistance to migrating business data and processes to the cloud. The findings presented here have numerous theoretical and practical implications, as follows. Cloud systems have seen significant demand among SMEs aiming to thrive in competitive markets. However, there is a noticeable lack of studies focusing on SMEs in smaller markets like Montenegro. This research addresses this gap by developing a longitudinal measure of change over seven years, which is pivotal for facilitating business transformation. Additionally, it aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the TOE and UTAUT frameworks, elucidating their significance in this context. Integrating TOE and UTAUT theories within a longitudinal study represents a novel research approach and is a significant theoretical contribution of this paper. This paper also has practical implications for both user practitioners and vendors. For user practitioners, it offers insights into cloud characteristics that can facilitate successful adoption of cloud solutions within SMEs, addressing their concerns as reported by the study's participants. Cloud providers are encouraged to forge closer partnerships with SME users and aid in raising awareness among owners, managers, and decision-makers. It is recommended that capacity-building programs in information security, along with practical guidelines, be employed as pivotal mechanisms to mitigate the risk of failures and enhance user acceptance. Several limitations in this study suggest directions for further investigation. Firstly, the five-year period covered (2017-2023) may not fully capture longer-term trends or changes beyond this timeframe. This is particularly relevant given the growing interest in blockchain technologies as a transformative layer for cloud-based solutions. Secondly, the main goal of this study was to gather comprehensive insights from SMEs in Montenegro, so perspectives from other regions and countries were not included. Future research could explore cross-regional comparisons and investigate specific business sectors and emerging trends in digitalization. Additionally, the sample was drawn from a limited number of SMEs and categorized only by company size. Including other indicators like financial performance, investments, years of operation, and entrepreneurial status could enrich the analysis. Future studies could expand the proposed methodology by providing a more detailed quantification of causal factors and assessing their resilience to market uncertainty and dynamic changes. **Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, I.O. and I.K. ; methodology, I.O. ; software, I.K. and R.S. ; validation, R.S. and M.D.-T.; formal analysis, I.O. and M.D.-T.; investigation, I.O., resources, I.O., R.S., and M.D.-T.; data curation, I.O. and M.D.-T.; writing--original draft preparation, I.O. ; writing--review and editing, M.D.-T. and R.S. ; visualization, I.O. and R.S. ; supervision, I.K. ; funding acquisition, I.O. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. **Funding:** This research was funded within the projects co-funded by the European Union \"Overcoming Digital Divide in Europe and Southeast Asia\", acronym: ODDEA, project ID: 101086381; and project \"Market oriented research on SME perspective about cloud computing solutions in ME\", acronym: Cloud4 SME@MNE, project ID: EuropeAid/136938/ID/ACT/ME.