Do CIOs Matter? Assessing the Value of CIO Presence in Top Management Teams

Though the importance of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) is well recognized in academic literature, concerns have often been expressed about the status of CIOs and their waning influence. In fact, not all firms choose to have Chief Information Officers (CIOs)as a part of their top management teams. This research investigates whether CIO presence/absence in top management teams affect firm performance. We assembled a multi-industry dataset of 205 firms that included CIOs in their TMTs and assessed their financial and market performance over a three year period (2002-2004). We found firms that included CIOs in their top management teams to have significantly better financial performance than their peer firms who did not. The results and their implications are discussed. This study provides an initial step towards understanding the empirical linkages between IT leadership and firm performance.