Who is in Charge of Digital Transformation? The Birth and Rise of the Chief Digital Officer

Chief digital officers: the state of the art and the road ahead

“…These logics can create routine behavior within organizations. A clash of opposite logics of action can raise conflict DiMaggio ( 1997 ), Friedland and Alford ( 1991 ) Explains tensions as a consequence of differing logics of action between CDO and CIO The CDO Role: Potential Role Overlaps, Conflict Tumbas et al ( 2018 ) Theory of Transactive Memory Systems Explains that teams succeed if they specialize in different areas of expertise, trust each other, or manage to assign tasks to respective specialists Wegner ( 1987 ), Lewis ( 2003 ) Explores the transactive memory system in the CDO-CIO dyad The CDO Role: Collaboration Horlacher ( 2016 ), Buchwald and Lorenz ( 2020 ) Concepts of shared understanding Relates to individuals’ agreement on a topic Preston and Karahanna ( 2009 ), Reich and Benabasat ( 2000 ) Observes CDO-CIO cooperation The CDO Role: collaboration Horlacher ( 2016 ), Onay et al ( 2018 ), Buchwald and Lorenz ( 2020 ) Role Ambiguity Refers to a state when actors lack necessary information on their organizational position which may have a negative impact on performance Rizzo et al ( 1970 ), House and Rizzo ( 1972 ), Miles ( 1976 ) Explains depressed stock prices as a consequence of mutual CDO-CIO appointments Consequences of CDO Presence: Financial Performance Zhan and Mu ( 2016 ) Applied Perspectives Role typologies for IS executives Distinguishes between several managerial roles in the context of innovation Grover et al ( 1993 ), Carter et al ( 2011 ), Mintzberg ( ...…”

“…Due to the scarce amount of performance data on CDOs, Seeher et al ( 2020 ) derive KPIs for CDOs from several survey rounds with experts, following a ranking-type Delphi method (Schmidt 1997 ). Two further studies were purely conceptual in nature (Giebe 2019 ; Buchwald and Lorenz 2020 ).…”

“…Regarding theoretical perspectives, scholars examine individual-level antecedents of CDO presence through the lens of ambidexterity (e.g., Gibson and Birkinshaw 2004 ; Raisch et al 2009 ) which describes the ability of individuals and organizations to balance opposing objectives, for example regarding supply-side and demand-side tasks (Chen et al 2010 ; Haffke et al 2016 ; Buchwald and Lorenz 2020 ). Firm- and environment-level antecedents of CDO presence are largely observed in exploratory case studies or through the theoretical lens of contingency theory which highlights the importance of fit between governance choices and the internal and external situation of the company (e.g., Child 1975 ; Donaldson 2001 ).…”

“…Specifically, Kunisch et al ( 2020 ) find a positive relation between CIO and CDO presence, suggesting that CIOs may indeed be frequently missing relevant digital leadership abilities. Building on theories of organizational ambidexterity, other scholars argue that senior managers appoint CDOs as digital strategists when the often opposing objectives of IT support and strategy development are hard to combine within the role of CIOs (Haffke et al 2016 ; Buchwald and Lorenz 2020 ).…”

“…Observing the CDO and CIO roles through the lens of organizational ambidexterity (e.g., Birkinshaw and Gibson 2004 ; Turner et al 2013) may help explain the heterogeneity in conceptualizations of CDO and CIO role profiles (Buchwald and Lorenz 2020 ). Studying CDOs’ and CIOs’ individual ability of performing tasks in an ambidextrous way, scholars argue that varying levels of CDOs’ and CIOs’ ambidextrous role orientations may have led to overlapping descriptions of CDO and CIO role profiles (Buchwald and Lorenz 2020 ).…”