Chief Data Officer Appointment And Origin: A Theoretical Perspective

In an era of big data, organizations are undergoing a revolution in the ways in which data is being visualized and transformed. Successfully navigating this process and completing the transformation requires that organizations not only shift their systems, structures, and human resource, but they must also develop an organizational culture that shares their vision. In this study we bring in three theories: upper echelons, contingency, and organizational adaption, to discuss what conditions affect an organization's decision to hire a Chief Data Officer (CDO), and where a CDO would be more likely to come from. In this research we pair and propose 12 propositions. We postulate that organization size, industry dynamism, diversification strategy, top management team (TMT) functional heterogeneity, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) tenure, and firm performance are six antecedents that have the greatest impact on CDO appointment and origin.