Search

The demand for information technology expertise has grown rapidly in the last few decades, signaling firms' commitment to integrating IT into core business strategies. Understanding the conditions under which firms appoint a chief information officer (CIO) can provide valuable insights into the evolving role of IT in corporate governance. This study addresses a crucial gap in the literature by exploring the determinants of a firm's decision to hire a CIO at the top management level. The study identifies several factors that influence a firm's decision to appoint a CIO, including the firm's size, its level of innovation, and its prior performance. The study examines these assertions by comparing the characteristics of firms that appoint a CIO at the top management level with those of similar firms in their industries that do not have a CIO position prior to the appointment. A logistic regression model that considers CIO firms and their matched firms indicates that firms that have larger capital expenditures, higher market value, or have experienced loss are more likely to hire a new CIO. Our study provides empirical evidence on why certain firms prioritize IT leadership at the executive level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of innovative technologies holds both promise and risk. We focus on the voluntary adoption of innovative financial reporting and disclosure technologies (IFRDTs) using the voluntary adoption of XBRL as an exemplar for our study. In particular, since IFRDTs have both financial reporting (FR) and information technology aspects (IT), we examine the impact of IT and FR competencies possessed by members of the top management team (CEOs and CFOs) on the voluntary adoption of XBRL beyond the impact of environmental, organizational, technological, and financial characteristics of their firms. We find that the voluntary adoption of XBRL was positively associated with higher levels of IT competencies; but, surprisingly, voluntary adoption of this innovation was negatively associated with higher levels of FR competencies, regardless of the functional role played by the executive. These results extend the literature on the influence of management characteristics on corporate decisions and can be used as a guide for investigating top executives' roles in the voluntary adoption of other IFRDTs, such as the use of social media for financial reporting or voluntary standardized business reporting in jurisdictions where such reporting is not mandatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]