Executive Digital Cognition, Policy Incentives, and Innovation Performance: The Mediating Role of Enterprise Digital Behavior
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33152/jmphss-10.6.1Keywords:
Executives’ digital cognition, Policy incentives, Enterprise digital behavior, Innovation performance, Manufacturing enterprises, Digital transformationAbstract
Digitalisation will not increase the level of innovation; rather, it is the effective utilisation of new-age resources by managers that can improve innovation performance. Based on the theories of upper-echelon and stakeholder, this paper investigates how executives’ digital cognition and policy incentives affect enterprise innovation performance through enterprise digital behaviour. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used to conduct a two-wave survey of 430 managers at Chinese manufacturing enterprises and five interviews with academic experts and manufacturing managers. Structural Equation Modelling showed that executives’ digital cognition and policy incentives positively affect enterprise digital behaviour and innovation performance, and enterprise digital behaviour is also positively correlated with innovation performance. Decomposition of the reported effect indicated partial mediation by enterprise digital behaviour. The four explanatory pathways of this thematic analysis are: Cognitive framing and strategic authorisation; policy support as resource relief and institutional validation; behavioural conversion through organisational reconfiguration; and innovation realisation and feedback. The study provides an institutional-managerial explanation of digital transformation by showing that executive interpretation and policy support create innovation value through the activation of management digitisation, business digitisation and ecosystem integration. The results provide a reference for building executive capabilities and behavioural-oriented digital policies.
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