An appetite for creative destruction: should the senior academic technology officer be modelled on the CIO or the CTO?

Abstract

We examine the emerging role of Senior Academic Technology Officer and the shift from having acknowledged expertise to acquiring legitimate organizational power. We are particularly interested in the match or mismatch between their own appetite for radical technological change, i.e. for creative destruction (Schumpeter, 1942) and that of the institution. We also consider two existing templates for such a role from mainstream information management and information technology: the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Technology Officer.