The role of a Chief Information Officer has undergone massive transformation in the past decade. As organisations prepare to cope with and compete in the digital era, CIO's role is becoming very demanding. The CIO is expected to play multiple and often competing roles. This demands a commensurate development of the CIO to play the role effectively. The focus of academic research has largely been upon defining the role and appreciation of its importance in the larger scheme of things. Based upon an extensive literature review spanning last three decades, the paper identifies the gaps in CIO role research. It argues for the fact that inclusion of context is very crucial as it can have a very deep impact on CIO's effectiveness. The paper also proposes a shift towards a suitable ontological and epistemological paradigm for studying the aspects of CIO role effectiveness it its context.