Chief Information Officer Research Articles

Developing a digital transformation model to enhance the strategy development process for leadership in the South African manufacturing sector

Purpose: This study’s aim was to gain insight into the transformative skills of business leaders in the South African manufacturing sector to drive their business’ digital transformation process. Technology recources lead digital transformation requires skills not understood by leadership. Cloud computing has facilitated machine learning and artificial intelligence where human comprehension is limited, using algorithms for analytics requiring size and scale to provide data for decision-making and enabled disruptive technologies that have changed the face of industry sectors.Design/methodology/approach: A pragmatic postmodern paradigm supports the theoretical framing of this study, conducted using descriptive research by e-questionnaire using quantitative analysis for deductive statistical evaluation.Findings/results: The findings formed the basis of a model developed to assist chief executive officers (CEOs) to implement digital transformation successfully.Practical implications: The CEO is responsible for the digital transformation of the business and must understand that data management is the most important asset in the digital era. The collection, storage, analysis, reporting and usage of data are key to competing in the digital economy, which requires the appointment of the chief information officer (CIO) to manage data and who should report directly to the CEO.Originality/value: Reporting to the CIO would be data scientists and analysts who work with data; their roles focus on building algorithms from machine learning and developing predictive models from data and simulation models to test if technologies used to drive digital migration are optimal.

Empirical identification of skills gaps between chief information officer supply and demand: a resource-based view using machine learning

PurposeThe role of emerging digital technologies is of growing strategic importance as it provides significant competitive advantage to organisations. The chief information officer (CIO) plays a pivotal role in facilitating the process of digital transformation. Whilst demand continues to increase, the supply of suitably qualified applicants is lacking, with many companies forced to choose information technology (IT) or marketing specialists instead. This research seeks to analyse the organisational capabilities required and the level of fit within the industry between CIO requirements and appointments via the resource-based view.Design/methodology/approachJob postings and CIO curriculum vitae were collected and analysed through the lens of organisational capability theory using the machine learning method of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA).FindingsThis research identifies gaps between the capabilities demanded by organisations and supplied by CIOs. In particular, soft, general, non-specific capabilities are over-supplied, while rarer specific skills, qualifications and experience are under-supplied.Practical implicationsThe research is useful for practitioners (e.g. potential CIO candidates) to understand current market requirements and for companies aiming to develop internal training that meet present and future skill gaps. It also could be useful for professional organisations (e.g. CIO Forum) to validate the need to develop mentoring schemes that help meet such high demand and relative undersupply of qualified CIOs.Originality/valueBy applying LDA, the paper provides a new research method and process for identifying competence requirements and gaps as well as ascertaining job fit. This approach may be helpful to other domains of research in the process of identifying specific competences required by organisations for particular roles as well as to understand the level of fit between such requirements and a potential pool of applicants. Further, the study provides unique insight into the current supply and demand for the role of CIO through the lens of resource-based view (RBV). This provides a contribution to the stream of information systems (IS) research focused on understanding CIO archetypes and how individual capabilities provide value to companies.

CIO reporting structure and firm strategic orientation – a content analysis approach

PurposeGrounded in the principal-agent theory, this study aims to develop and test hypotheses too, investigate how the firm’s strategic orientations, namely, innovation, growth, differentiation and cost leadership impact the chief information officer (CIO) reporting relationship and structure.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses content analysis to analyze a data set of press releases collected from the LexisNexis Academic wire index. The press releases were issued by firms when they hired CIOs between 2003 and 2007, yielding 128 firms, which had specific information about the CIO reporting relationship and structure.FindingsThe results reveal that firms seeking an innovation, growth or differentiation strategy have their CIOs reporting to the chief executive officer.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study is motivated by the desire to replicate and extend the works of previous researchers who have assessed various CIO issues. Replication takes several forms such as the use of similar or different data sets, different research environments or reinvestigating research concepts through a different theoretical lens. This study makes use of a multi-firm data set spanning five years and the principal-agent theory as the theoretical framework to explore the CIO reporting relationship and structure. Although this study focuses on the hiring trends and the strategic orientations of the firms, future studies should explore other characteristics associated with the CIOs that might have an impact on the reporting relationship such as the years of experience, age, educational background of CIOs and information technology budgets.Practical implicationsThe existing literature has not settled the debate as to whom the CIO should be reporting to and understanding the reporting relationships is important because, in many firms, the organizational structures and the reporting relationships are indicative of the power dynamics and how the organizational resources are controlled and shared.Originality/valueReplication studies are important because they confirm, reinforce, extend and provide reliability to the paradigms and knowledge in the discipline, as well as offer reliability of the results upon which scientific progress is based.

Introducing RPA and automation in the financial sector: Lessons from KAS Bank

During an annual board meeting in 2016 KAS Bank’s executive management discussed various business and client trends and their effect on future banking. Based on the discussion, they recognised the need to improve internal business processes, and as such, increase the degree of client satisfaction. In the meeting, they considered the idea of using automation as a way to achieve their goal, as since their start in 1806, KAS Bank embraced technical innovations. For example, they introduced their first mainframe in 1961, a first web application in the late 1980s and subsequently introduced a monitor app to provide financial information to pension funds and insurance firms. The executive board decided to further explore various technical innovation opportunities and consequently asked the Chief Information Officer to explore possible solutions. As the was pondering on this new task, he was wondering: where do we start, which type of processes can be automated, do we have the capabilities in-house to be successful, and what will be the impact on our personnel? This case study describes an actual situation of KAS Bank and its journey to implement robotic process automation solutions. The structure that is followed comprises three stages: Development stage, Implementation stage, and the Operational stage. This teaching case consists of two parts. The first part introduces robotic process automation and KAS Bank, while the second part discusses the three stages and corresponding challenges.

Towards A Cloud Computing Success Model For Hospital Information System In Jordan

Cloud computing technology success has yet to develop from the infancy stage of implementation in the context of hospitals. This study primarily aimed to minimize the literature gap by examining the critical factors influencing cloud computing success in hospitals, particularly in Jordan. The study made use of online survey method for data collection, and the survey were distributed to chief information officers (CIOs) in the hospitals. Based on the obtained results, the inclusion of trust, networking quality and perceived risk into the information system model will contribute to the explanatory power of cloud computing success in Jordanian hospitals. In added, system quality, information quality, networking quality, service quality and trust were found to have a direct influence on cloud computing satisfaction, while risk was found to indirectly influence satisfaction via trust. Trust mediated the relationship between perceived risk and satisfaction. The proposed cloud computing success model is expected to assist hospitals in their evaluation and achievement of success following their cloud computing adoption in healthcare services.

Public sector CFOs and CIOs: impacts of work proximity and role perceptions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the unique and challenging relationship between the chief financial officer (CFO) and chief information officer (CIO) in the public sector.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors operationalize the CFO–CIO relationship using upper echelon theory (UET) and propose an extension to it by introducing relationship effectiveness and role perception constructs. Applying a configurational approach to paired survey data, the authors use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to examine both joint and individual role paths to success.FindingsThe CFO is ultimately responsible for financial reporting, disclosure and financial decision-making; however, regulatory changes in the accounting domain have resulted in the increased use of information technology (IT) thereby bringing the CIO to the forefront of the accounting information discussion. Thus, an improved understanding of the CFO/CIO relationship can have a direct impact on how accounting information is captured and analyzed. The authors find that CFO and CIO proximity can often increase the likelihood of an effective relationship. On an individual level, an ambidextrous approach to strategic value and cost-effectiveness is key to both CFO and CIO success.Research limitations/implicationsThis study extends current models of top management team relationships by examining work proximity and role perception in the context of UET. It was conducted within the context of Canadian government and post-secondary education. The authors believe the findings can be generalized for the public sector in general; however, its applicability in the private sector, where the role of the CFO is broader, is uncertain.Practical implicationsThe findings identify an opportunity for both accounting (financial) and IT communities to develop education within the context of their respective professional bodies to enhance this special relationship.Originality/valueRecent regulatory changes in the accounting domain have brought an increased need for IT and therefore increased interaction between the CFO and CIO. This study focuses on the unique relationship between the CFO and CIO, which has a direct impact on accounting functions and highlights the importance of both the CFO and CIO having an ambidextrous approach to strategic value and cost-effectiveness if they want to be successful. In addition, it demonstrates that the relationship between the CFO and CIO is important, but more important for the success of the CIO than the CFO.

The Effect of Innovation Capabilities of Health Care Organizations on the Quality of Health Information Technology: Model Development With Cross-sectional Data

BackgroundLarge health organizations often struggle to build complex health information technology (HIT) solutions and are faced with ever-growing pressure to continuously innovate their information systems. Limited research has been conducted that explores the relationship between organizations’ innovative capabilities and HIT quality in the sense of achieving high-quality support for patient care processes.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to explain how core constructs of organizational innovation capabilities are linked to HIT quality based on a conceptual sociotechnical model on innovation and quality of HIT, called the IQHIT model, to help determine how better information provision in health organizations can be achieved.MethodsWe designed a survey to assess various domains of HIT quality, innovation capabilities of health organizations, and context variables and administered it to hospital chief information officers across Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Data from 232 hospitals were used to empirically fit the model using partial least squares structural equation modeling to reveal associations and mediating and moderating effects.ResultsThe resulting empirical IQHIT model reveals several associations between the analyzed constructs, which can be summarized in 2 main insights. First, it illustrates the linkage between the constructs measuring HIT quality by showing that the professionalism of information management explains the degree of HIT workflow support (R²=0.56), which in turn explains the perceived HIT quality (R²=0.53). Second, the model shows that HIT quality was positively influenced by innovation capabilities related to the top management team, the information technology department, and the organization at large. The assessment of the model’s statistical quality criteria indicated valid model specifications, including sufficient convergent and discriminant validity for measuring the latent constructs that underlie the measures of HIT quality and innovation capabilities.ConclusionsThe proposed sociotechnical IQHIT model points to the key role of professional information management for HIT workflow support in patient care and perceived HIT quality from the viewpoint of hospital chief information officers. Furthermore, it highlights that organizational innovation capabilities, particularly with respect to the top management team, facilitate HIT quality and suggests that health organizations establish this link by applying professional information management practices. The model may serve to stimulate further scientific work in the field of HIT adoption and diffusion and to provide practical guidance to managers, policy makers, and educators on how to achieve better patient care using HIT.

The Impact of Executives’ IT Expertise on Reported Data Security Breaches

Data security breaches (DSBs) are increasing investor and regulator pressure on firms to improve their IT governance (ITG) in an effort to mitigate the related risk. We argue that DSB risk cannot be mitigated by one executive alone, but, rather, is a shared leadership responsibility of the top management team (TMT) (i.e., Chief Executive Officer [CEO], Chief Financial Officer [CFO], and Chief Information Officer [CIO]). Our results suggest that IT-savvy CEOs see technologies related to mitigating DSBs as a top-three most important type of digital methodology for their firm. Similarly, the results related to CFOs with IT expertise single out the critical investment in controls designed to prevent DSBs. Our strong findings for CIOs on the TMT add to the related guidance from COBIT 5 for information security and consistently suggest that they are the key executive for securing IT systems. Finally, our granular explanation of each executive’s DSB-related responsibility could potentially provide firms the start of a governance-led roadmap for compliance to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s and Justice Department’s cyber regulations.

Do chief information officers matter for sustainable development? Impact of their regulatory focus on green information technology strategies and corporate performance

AbstractThis study proposes and empirically tests a model delineating the relationships among a chief information officer's (CIO's) dominant regulatory focus, the corporate practice of green information technology (IT) strategies and corporate performance. It also examines the moderating role of regulatory stakeholder influence (RSI) in this model. Findings based on sampled firms operating in China have provided support for all the hypotheses. Specifically, they highlight that CIOs with a dominant promotion focus are more prone to practice green IT strategies than those with a dominant prevention focus. Moreover, RSI is found to positively moderate the impact of dominant regulatory focus on the practice of green IT strategies. This strategic practice is also found to enhance corporate performance. Last, the empirical findings reveal that a CIO's dominant promotion focus exerts a direct and positive influence on corporate performance, which suggests that this focus also serves as a direct driver for corporate performance. In sum, these findings not only enrich the extant literature on environmental management and information systems, but also provide useful insights into fine‐tuning firms' CIO selection criteria and policy makers' regulatory measures to advance corporate sustainability.

A Model for Examining Challenges and Opportunities in Use of Cloud Computing for Health Information Systems

Health Information Systems (HIS) are becoming crucial for health providers, not only for keeping Electronic Health Records (EHR) but also because of the features they provide that can be lifesaving, thanks to the advances in Information Technology (IT). These advancements have led to increasing demands for additional features to these systems to improve their intelligence, reliability, and availability. All these features may be provisioned through the use of cloud computing in HIS. This study arrives at three dimensions pertinent to adoption of cloud computing in HIS through extensive interviews with experts, professional expertise and knowledge of one of the authors working in this area, and review of academic and practitioner literature. These dimensions are financial performance and cost; IT operational excellence and DevOps; and security, governance, and compliance. Challenges and drivers in each of these dimensions are detailed and operationalized to arrive at a model for HIS adoption. This proposed model detailed in this study can be employed by executive management of health organizations, especially senior clinical management positions like Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs), and IT managers to make an informed decision on adoption of cloud computing for HIS. Use of cloud computing to support operational and financial excellence of healthcare organizations has already made some headway in the industry, and its use in HIS would be a natural next step. However, due to the mission′s critical nature and sensitivity of information stored in HIS, the move may need to be evaluated in a holistic fashion that can be aided by the proposed dimensions and the model. The study also identifies some issues and directions for future research for cloud computing adoption in the context of HIS.

Innovative Processes in Managing an Enterprise from the Energy and Food Sector in the Era of Industry 4.0

The paper analyzes issues related to production processes in learning organizations using innovative solutions based on the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This study was realized by surveys and observation of companies operating in the energy and food sectors. These are sectors that in recent years have started to intensively implement innovative solutions and are undergoing a transformation towards an intelligent (digital) enterprise, which uses virtual reality, supported by effectively controlling the non-player characters (NPCs). The presented examples can be inspiration for chief executive officer (CEOs), chief operating officers (COOs), and chief information officers (CIOs), the people managing companies for investment in innovative solutions. The implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions, as well as new machines design according state-of-the-art achievements of mechanical engineering rules, will allow companies to implement new products, achieve better results (e.g., more products with lower production cost), increase operational efficiency (e.g., lower energy and water consumption), and meet environmental requirements (e.g., reduce CO2 emission, introduce zero-emission energy production).

The misleading simplicity of designing an intelligent city

ABSTRACT Today’s designers of intelligent cities have successfully been able to communicate a conceptual model for the technology requirements that fulfil a city’s ambitions. The increasing popularisation of intelligent cities has driven this behaviour and populations are now starting to experience the gap between their expectations and reality. This paper considers the new generalist roles that are necessary to deliver broad and complex intelligent city systems. Furthermore, new inanimate users are discussed as well as the ways that standardisation in nomenclature, processing and management are essentials to reduce initial delivery and operational risk. The paper presents an example intelligent city design whose initial stack diagram unravels to present billions of permutations of system interactions. It is concluded that city Chief Information Officers (CIO) have teams that they need to build in order to manage the coming challenges in their operational purviews.

The strategic role of CIOs in IT controls: IT control weaknesses and CIO turnover

Extending the literature on information technology control weaknesses (ITCWs), we investigate the strategic role of chief information officers (CIOs) in maintaining adequate internal controls and remediating ITCWs. Drawing on institutional theory and sunk cost effect, we develop three hypotheses. We adopt an archival approach and obtain CIO turnover and ITCW data for 890 distinct firms, finding that: (i) ITCW disclosures may not increase the likelihood of CIO turnover, (ii) CIOs’ backgrounds are associated with the likelihood of turnover, and (iii) CIO turnover increases the likelihood of subsequent ITCW remediation. Theoretically, we extend the literature by investigating the strategic role of CIOs in remediating ITCW. Practically, we find that common practices by firms to retain CIOs in ITCW situations are ineffective for ITCW remediation. Firms are encouraged to reconsider these practices.

The Chief Information Officer: Impact on Organizational Forecasting Outcomes

Management earnings forecasts are essential sources of information for organizational shareholders. However, many companies remain in a quandary about how to develop an appropriate governance structure within top management to produce high-quality forecasts. This study investigates how firms with chief information officers (CIOs) impact organizational outcomes in terms of both the frequency and the bias of management earnings forecasts. We integrate the following theories to formulate our hypotheses: upper echelons theory, agency theory, and information processing theory (in conjunction with strategic management literature). Using a sample of firm-years (2000 to 2010), we find robust support for the proposition that firms with CIOs are associated with reduced opportunistic bias in earnings forecasts. In addition, we find that, as information uncertainty increases, firms with CIOs generate management forecasts less frequently and exhibit a reduction in optimistic forecasting bias. Collectively, these findings provide a theory-based understanding of how firms with CIOs can influence forecasting outcomes.

Cyber Security Solutions for Businesses in Financial Services

This paper examines the challenges that small, medium, and large businesses in the financial services industry are facing concerning data security and providing relevant tools and strategies to protect the same. A qualitative research-based approach has been used where one-on-one interviews were conducted with 10 CIOs (chief information officers) and CISOs (chief information security officers). This data was compared with secondary data sources to validate the findings. This paper presents an in-depth analysis regarding security technologies and their efficacy to protect data assets and sensitive information. It will also opine about the technologies that each business type can use economically to cover the gamut of cyber-attacks. Existing research is restricted to either addressing small and medium businesses (SMBs) or large businesses. This paper attempts a comprehensive review for all sizes of businesses.

Sharing Enterprise Cloud Securely at IBM

Cloud platforms have been relieving users from managing their own infrastructures and simplifying the task of application development. In recent years, containerized cloud platforms further accelerate the development process and provide a fine-grained billing model. For enterprise users, many challenges exist when migrating their applications to cloud platforms. The challenges include resource isolation, resource sharing, and usability. This article presents our approaches to securely and effectively share the already-shared cloud resources at IBM Chief Information Office. Several key approaches are discussed, such as cluster isolation, cluster automation, and identity and access management. We also collect various types of metrics as we are enabling the shared cloud. Our work shows great promise for migrating enterprise users and their data to the cloud.

Not Your Typical Leader? How Perceptions of CIOs Compare to Other Members of the Top Management Team

In this paper, we examine chief information officers’ (CIO) perceptual profiles relative to other top management team (TMT) members. CIOs’ profile reveals that decision makers perceive them as less authoritative and less socially adept, important traits for strategic leadership. Decision makers also perceive them to have less in common with successful business leaders than either chief finance officers (CFOs) or chief marketing officers (CMOs). These findings highlight important differences in the way that decision makers perceive CIOs relative to their top management team colleagues and shed light on a possible reason for some challenges that CIOs frequently face in organizations.

Chief information officers’ perceptions about artificial intelligence

This article presents a study about artificial intelligence (AI) policy based on the perceptions, expectations, and challenges/opportunities given by chief information officers (CIOs). In general, publications about AI in the public sector relies on experiences, cases, ideas, and results from the private sector. Our study stands out from the need of defining a distinctive approach to AI in the public sector, gathering primary (and comparative) data from different countries, and assessing the key role of CIOs to frame federal/national AI policies and strategies. This article reports three research questions, including three dimensions of analysis: (1) perceptions regarding to the concept of AI in the public sector; (2) expectations about the development of AI in the public sector; and, (3) challenges and opportunities of AI in the public sector. This exploratory study presents the results of a survey administered to federal/national ministerial government CIOs in ministries of Mexico and Spain. Our descriptive statistical (and exploratory) analysis provides an overall approach to our dimensions, exploratory answering the research questions of the study. Our data supports the existence of different governance models and policy priorities in different countries. Also, these results might inform research in this same area and will help senior officials to assess the national AI policies actually in process of design and implementation in different national/federal, regional/state, and local/municipal contexts.

The Awe: From the Extraordinary to the Everyday

Abstract The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) was founded in 1952 to make the UK's warheads for the nation's strategic nuclear deterrent. Talking to Tony Mather, Chief Information Officer and Executive Director for Security at AWE, Johanna Hamilton AMBCS discovers more about their work, recruitment and ethics.

A Qualitative Study on CIO Competencies, Cloud-IoT Implementation Challenges & the Organizational Benefits of Cloud-IoT Implementations

The present era has captured and really embraced IoT-c loud implementation, which is now expanding rapidly like wildfire in almost every industry. During the cloud-IoT era, the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) plays an important part in adoption and implementation of these technologie