Fig. 1

“CTO’s key stakeholders’ model.” The figure was developed at the Steinbeis Global Institute Tübingen by Lohmüller and Petrikhin in 2016. The model is a result of the analysis of Smith’s 2002 research, where the author identifies the CTO’s core business relationships which can be considered as the rationale behind the CTO’s organizational role and the source of his or her personal influence. However, in the study in question, Smith does not concentrate on the division of internal and external stakeholders (the division itself is implicit). The “CTO’s key stakeholders’ model” is based on the categorization of the key stakeholders from the viewpoint of their belonging to the organizational structure and according to the main focus of communicative interaction. For instance, the sales and marketing department is described here as an external-internal stakeholder. This is directly related to the fact that this department is obviously an organization element, and its communicational channels are directed more to the end consumers who are interested in the results of technology applications rather than their functionality within a company/organization. It should be mentioned that this model is a logical generalization which aims at demonstrating the complexity and multi-dimensional character of relationships between a CTO and the core stakeholders. Besides that, each unique business case should be considered in the context of its internal and external characteristics, such as market conditions, low restrictions, the number of employees, technologies applied, and sources. Based on such unique quantitative and qualitative characteristics, a combination of the key stakeholders can vary significantly