【报告主题】The Importance of Executives’ IT Expertise in Generating IT Innovation Success
【主讲嘉宾】Jee-Hae Lim，University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
【报告时间】2025年6月10日 10:00
【报告地点】会计学院108室
【内容提要】
Information technology (IT) innovation is one of the top priorities for executives to attain and sustain competitive advantages. At the same time, pursuing IT innovation is fraught with risk, unpredictability, and complexities, which requires an increased importance of executives' engagement and their synergic role of IT expertise in IT innovation. Drawing on both the resource-based view and upper echelon theory, we contend that achieving IT innovation success is contingent on the complementary leadership of the executives (i.e., the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the IT executive. Our study finds that both the quantity and quality of the firm’s IT innovation are higher when the CEO possesses IT expertise, the CFO has IT expertise, and there is an IT executive. Furthermore, we document that the positive effect of executives’ IT expertise on IT innovation is even more prominent for firms that pursue the prospector business strategy. Such a synergic role of executives’ IT expertise increases the quantity and quality of IT innovation types, eventually leading to positive future firm performance. This study contributes to the emerging line of research on executives’ influence and IT innovation by providing empirical evidence on the benefits of having IT expertise in the top management team on IT innovation outcomes. We also offer insights to boards, investors, and other stakeholders that IT innovation success is not dependent on one top executive alone but relies on the synergic leadership of the key executive members for innovation – i.e., the CEO, CFO, and the IT executive.