## 3 The Research Model  
Technology-organization-environment (TOE) model, was introduced and developed by [38]. Focusing on organizational-level, this model examines the exact stages and variable classes for predicting ICT adoption [39]. As for this study, this model is adopted and extended by incorporating new determinants that are suitable for an investigation in HEIs particularly in least developed countries. The research model has three contexts; organizational, technological and environmental, which are regarded as most significant in ICT adoption. Firstly, the organizational context contains organizational variables which encourage and increase the process of technology adoption. Representing the resources and features of an organization, the organizational factors include size, technology readiness, human resources, and management support [40; 41]. Secondly, the environmental context consists of factors related to the area in which the organization conducts its business. These include industry, competitive and trading pressure, regulatory policy, and culture, which can either encourage or delay the acceptance and adoption of technology [41]. Since it is not included in other theories except TOE, the environment is found to be the most suitable context in meeting the objectives of this study. Thirdly, the technological context takes into consideration the three innovative indicators of cloud computing adoption: relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity [41; 42; 43]. Given the inability to operationally defined culture, there is difficulty in building a consensus on the role of culture within the context of technology adoption [44]. Over the past two decades there has been increasing interest in the IS research literature in the impact of cultural differences on the adoption of information technologies. When viewing ICT adoption as a product placement issue, it is acceptable to inquire about the cultural nature of the target user of the product. Culture has been considered something that affects the reason for and rate of ICT, including cloud computing adoption. It is suggested that culture can impede the implementation efforts because of the differences in the way ICTs are interpreted and given meaning [45; 46]. In a country like Yemen, with a strong tribal culture, it is highly probable that people will adopt the views of their surrounding groups, and the same applies to institutions whose employees are no more autonomous [23]. Similarly, [47] argued that a critical variable for the success or failure of technology adoption is culture. This has a lot to do with utilizing the new technology within the cultural environment. Thus, innovation and cultural tribalism depend on one another. Normally, culture can be seen differently from one country to another. In the existing literature, culture has been considered as one of the factors that has a direct relationship on technology adoption [47]. However, at this stage, the study posits that culture should be considered as moderating factor since Yemen's strong tribalism culture relates to membership of a tribe of the same group or family and this has strong associations which impact the technology adoption particularly cloud computing adoption. Therefore, further investigation needs to be conducted to confirm the role of culture as a factor towards the cloud computing adoption of HEIs in Yemen. The research model in Figure 1 investigates the relationships between technology, organization, and environment factors and the moderating effect of culture on these factors. Relative advantage,compatibility, security, and reliability variables that represent the technological context were hypothesized to have significant impacts on the dependent variable, cloud computing adoption. Top management support and technology readiness that represent the organizational context were hypothesized to have significant impacts on the dependent variable.