Abstract

This research draws upon the upper echelon theory to examine the relationship between role effectiveness of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and organizational innovative usage of information systems (IS). A large-scale sample survey was conducted in Chinese organizations. Results from 129 CIOs and senior business executives provide robust evidence about the impacts of CIO strategic role effectiveness (i.e., IS strategist and information strategist) on organizational innovative usage of IS. Further, we find the intensity of relationship is much stronger in the organizations that articulate a transform IS vision. However, the operational role effectiveness (i.e., IT manager, integrator, and IS contract oversight) was not found to have significant impacts on organizational innovative usage of IS across all strategic IS visions. The relationship between operational role effectiveness and organizational innovative usage of IS is completely mediated by strategic role effectiveness. Surprisingly, the strongest relationship between operational role effectiveness and strategic role effectiveness occurs only in the organizations that espouse a transform IS vision. This research provides practitioners with a deeper understanding of organizational innovative usage of IS from the perspective of IS leadership.

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