Front. Bus. Res. China 2010, 4(4): 685– 701

Abstract This study investigates the impacts of CIO’s presence in an organization’s top management team (TMT) on the contribution of information technology (IT) to corporate innovation. Based on the literature review, a new theoretical model is proposed. Through a massive survey on 120 CIOs from various types of Chinese corporations, we examine a series of hypotheses proposed based on this model. Our findings reveal significant influences of CIO’s presence in the TMT on IT’s contribution to corporate innovations. The findings also suggest that such impacts could be mediated by TMT’s IT knowledge. Furthermore, we find the significant moderating role of TMT’s risk aptitude, i.e., when the executives are more willing to take risks, the relationship between CIO’s participation in TMT and the importance of IT to innovation is more significant. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.

Keywords chief information officer (CIO), top management team (TMT), IT knowledge, risk aptitude, corporate innovation