Information technology leadership in swedish leading multinational corporations

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) role, responsibilities, profile and the IT impact in five leading multinational corporations (MNCs) in Sweden. The first part of the paper comprehends a research review regarding the CIO role, responsibilities and barriers that the CIO is facing today in MNCs with references to the European business environment. After that in the second part of the paper a comparative analysis is provided regarding the CIO role, responsibilities and CIO profile using the Sojer et al. model [25] in the Swedish leading MNCs. Moreover the paper is providing in this part an analysis upon if the CIO is adding value by using Earl and Fenny profile [7]. In the last part of the paper an analysis is done concerning the IT impact in the Swedish MNCs by using McFarlan strategic grid framework [20] together with IT strategies used by the CIOs to support the business operations and strategies. The results of this analysis provide a detail overview that can be usefully for Swedish IT executives or top managers about the development of the CIO role, responsibilities and profile. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.