How chief data officers promote data-driven innovation: an empirical investigation

Purpose With the arrival of the big data era, governments have appointed a chief data officer (CDO) to meet the opportunities and challenges brought by big data. The existing research on the CDOs is very limited, and what does exist focuses primarily on what are CDOs do. Little research has explored how CDOs do. To fill this gap, this study employed ambidexterity theory to investigate the ambidexterity of CDOs’ impact on data-driven innovation. Design/methodology/approach To empirically test the model, a survey study was conducted to empirically test the model. Data were collected from 261 CDOs in government and government employees in big data management centers or bureaus. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively to answer hypotheses using a structural equation model. Findings The findings suggest that data exploitation and data exploration significantly influence data-driven leadership, culture and value propositions. Data-driven leadership and value propositions significantly impact government performance. Originality/value This study is one of the first attempts to investigate how CDOs work, especially when promoting data-driven innovation. In addition, this study extends ambidexterity theory into the issue of the CDO in government.