Firm financial outcomes: The impact of technology leaders

As the importance of Information Technology (IT) has exploded in business, its prominence in senior leadership teams has become pervasive. However, the success of these companies' efforts is mixed. This research uses Return on Assets, Tobin's q, and Market-to-Book value, to evaluate the impact of adding IT leaders into the C-Suite (CxOs). We examine instances of a CxO as a member of the top-five compensated executives from 1992 and 2018, identifying 2056 observations, and find that firms with a CxO have better financial performance than their non-CxO peers. Second, different CxO titles lead to different financial impact on the firm.