An assessment of the relationship between ISD leadership characteristics and IS innovation adoption in organizations

This study examines the relationship between IS innovation adoption and leadership characteristics in information systems departments (ISDs); computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is the specific innovation considered here, with positional power and job tenure of the ISD leader the prime leadership characteristics. A sample of top IS executives in US organizations was the object of the survey. Discriminant analysis was used to analyze the collected data. Contrary to the commonly held belief in the innovation diffusion literature, we found that both positional power and job tenure of the ISD leader are negatively related to organizational adoption of the IS innovation.