Impact of Top Management's IT Knowledge and IT Governance Mechanisms on Financial Performance

The primary objective of this paper is to examine whether top management’s IT knowledge and the firm’s use of important IT governance mechanisms reliably contribute to a firm’s financial performance. We found that IT knowledge at top executive levels and the board is associated with a company’s use of IT governance mechanisms such as CIOs and IT strategy committees that lead to improved financial performance. These findings provide evidence-based support for normative prescriptions for addressing the so-called IT attention and IT knowledge deficits at the top executive and board levels of companies.