THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER (CTO) IN LITERATURE AND PRACTICE — A REVIEW AND RESULTS FROM FIELD RESEARCH IN JAPAN

This paper presents a literature review discussing empirical as well as conceptual papers concerning the CTO — the Chief Technology Officer — his tasks, responsibilities and authority and his relations with other corporate functions. It further presents first results of a CTO survey conducted in the Japanese electrical engineering industry in the fall of 2006. Based on both, a set of propositions is presented which the authors test via a large forthcoming empirical study in the same industry.