ABSTRACT: The article presents a study of chief information officers (CIOs), which focuses on changes in the position's leadership role from a supply-oriented to demand-oriented model. The trend toward information technology (IT) as a commodity which can be outsourced has led to CIOs becoming more involved in business strategy planning at the senior executive level. A staged maturity model of the CIO role is presented as a means of analyzing this transition, from IT as an operations-oriented support function to the strategic deployment of IT to achieve a competitive advantage. Matched CIO responses from over 150 corporations were used to identify aspects of this process, such as human capital, CIO structural power, and organizational support for IT.
Key words and phrases: chief information officer, exploitation, exploration, IT functional impact, IT leadership, staged maturity model, strategic value of IT, structural equation modeling, survey research