Aligning CIO Characteristics to Business Strategy: An Empirical Investigation

This paper examines the match between chief information officer (CIO) characteristics and the organization's business strategy and how this match will influence the impact of IS on the organization's business performance. Based on the study of typologies of business strategy, alignment between IS and business strategy and upper echelon theory, a conceptual model is proposed. Survey data from 81 CIOs/IS managers is collected to empirically test the model. The results indicate that a match between business strategy and CIOs of certain repertoires of competencies, experiences and personalities could lead to better organizational performance. Specifically, the impact of IS on business performance in aligned organizations is significantly better than it is in misaligned ones.