"The Asia South market has demonstrated a mindset shift in terms of its strategy on IT- led innovation," IDC said.

The market research firm also noted virtualisation, security, mobile, cloud, and green IT as the "top technologies" being considered for further investments by Asia South for 2012 and 2013.

"IDC believes that organisations need to first achieve a level of effectiveness in harnessing IT, followed by aligning IT with business priorities, before driving IT-led innovations to achieve desired outcomes," said Sandra Ng, group vice president, Practice Group, IDC Asia/Pacific.

Of the respondents, 70 percent cited business process transformation as an IT-led innovation that their organisation is presently investing in. Furthermore, 75 percent of CEOs or CIOs in Asia South are seen as enablers, champions or experts on innovation. On the other hand, only 25 percent assume no major role or are even seen as "barriers" to innovation.

IDC sees the survey results as indicating a promising sign because lead stakeholders in Asia South assume a pivotal role in pushing innovation in their respective companies operating within a predominantly top-down culture.