CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.6 Operationalization of Variables
2.6.3 Mediating Variables
The internal conditions can mediate the relationship between the external environment and DT, and the internal conditions chiefly consist of digital strategy, organization capability and leadership. The formulation of digital strategy is the strategic direction at the company level and business level (Lipsmeier, Kühn, Joppen,
& Dumitrescu, 2020). Digital strategies can significantly affect enterprise DT and points out the direction for DT (Gobble, 2018). Positioning the DT strategy at the business strategy level of the company, and combining the digital environment and digital technology application will bring more opportunities to enterprises (Ismail, Khater, & Zaki, 2017). Organizational agility enables organizations to respond quickly to changes in the dynamic market and effectively promote enterprise DT. Enterprises make use of the power of digital technologies, which can contribute to cultivate the capabilities of organizational learning and innovation, and then promote enterprise DT (Kutzschenbach & Daub, 2021). The essence of innovation lies in the use of knowledge.
The organization’s knowledge management ability helps to promote innovation and DT (Sun, Liu, & Ding, 2020). Knowledge management research can provide necessary knowledge support for enterprises to carry out DT (Klein & Todesco, 2021). The system integration ability and knowledge integration ability of enterprises play a significant role in DT (Salunke, Weerawardena, & McColl-Kennedy, 2019).
Organizations with strong learning ability contribute to the improvement of digital
ability and the learning of DT (Seufert & Meier, 2016). Enterprises use digital technology for innovation, so as to ensure the implementation of DT (Safrudin, Rosemann, Jung, & Uhl, 2016). Digital vision is a leadership skill that digital leaders should possess (Chaiyaset Promsri, 2019). Leaders with DT awareness will help improve the company’s general understanding of DT Enterprises need strong leadership to drive DT (Imran, Shahzad, Butt, & Kantola, 2020). Digital leadership can positively impact enterprise DT (Mihardjoa, Sasmokob, Alamsjahb, & Elidjenb, 2019). Leaders are the drivers of all businesses supporting their digital strategy (Kazim, 2019).
Leaders’ support for DT contributes to the success of DT. The operationalization of internal conditions variables is shown in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3 Operationalization of Internal Conditions Variables Mediating
Variable
Conceptual Definition
Operational Definition
Measuring Source
Digital strategy
Digital strategy is an action plan designed to achieve business objectives through the implementation of the digital plan.
Measure the level at which the
significance of development, role, and positioning of digital
strategy can affect DT.
development of digital strategy
(Lipsmeier et al., 2020).
role of digital strategy
(Gobble, 2018;
Tarutė et al., 2018).
positioning of digital
strategy
(Hess et al., 2016).
Organization capability
Organization capability refers to the ability to meet the conditions described by the enterprise
Measure the level at which organization agility, knowledge management capability,
organization agility
(Perkin &
Abraham, 2021).
knowledge management capability
(Henriette, Feki, &
Boughzala, 2015; Klein &
Mediating Variable
Conceptual Definition
Operational Definition
Measuring Source
from the resource-based point of view and become the source of sustainable competitive advantage.
information operation ability of employees, integration capability, learning ability, and innovation ability can affect DT.
Todesco, 2021).
information operation ability of employees
(H. Chen, 2016).
integration capability
(Matarazzo, Penco, Profumo, &
Quaglia, 2021).
learning ability
(Matarazzo et al., 2021).
innovation ability
(Moschogianni, 2021; Safrudin et al., 2016).
Leadership Leadership refers to the ability of leadership to influence others to achieve their goals.
Measure the level at which leadership consciousness, leadership vision, leadership role, and leadership support can affect DT.
leadership consciousness
(Tabrizi, Lam, Girard, &
Irvin, 2019).
leadership vision
(Chaiyaset Promsri, 2019;
Martins, 2019).
leadership role
(Mihardjoa et al., 2019; Peter et al., 2020).
leadership support
(Westerman et al., 2014).
Digital innovation has an intermediary impact on the relationship between the external environment, the internal conditions and enterprise DT. The impact of digital innovation on DT is mainly reflected in the innovation environment, innovation
mechanism, innovation culture and innovation investment. The friendly innovation environment can contribute to improving innovation efficiency (S. Wang, Fan, Zhao,
& Wang, 2016). Digital innovation environment is conducive to promoting digital innovation, and then affect enterprise DT (Leist, Karagiannis, Johannsen, & Penzel, 2021). An effective innovation mechanism is conducive to the cultivation of DT talents, Innovative management mechanism is conducive to DT (Lanzolla, Pesce, & Tucci, 2021). An innovative digital project team can be created under the innovative culture, so as to ensure the implementation of DT (Guinan et al., 2019). Establishing and strengthening a corporate culture that supports organizational innovation is a prerequisite for innovation (Bendak, Shikhli, & Abdel-Razek, 2020). Sustained R&D investment is the key to determining innovation output (F. X. Zhu, Ding, & Zhao, 2021). Sufficient capital investment of the R&D contribute to the implementation of enterprise DT (Kontic & Vidicki, 2018). The operationalization of digital innovation is shown in Table 2.4.
Table 2.4 Operationalization of Digital Innovation Mediating
Variable
Conceptual Definition
Operational Definition
Measuring Source
Digital innovation
Digital innovation refers to the use of digital
technologies and applications to improve business processes and employee performance, improve customer experience, and
Measure the impact of digital innovation environment, innovation mechanism, innovation culture and innovation investment on DT.
digital innovation environment
(Leist et al., 2021;
Messina, 2018).
digital innovation mechanism
(Mhlungu et al., 2019).
digital innovation culture
(Bendak et al., 2020;
Ciriello et al., 2018).
Mediating Variable
Conceptual Definition
Operational Definition
Measuring Source
introduce new products or business models.
digital innovation investment
(Kontic &
Vidicki, 2018).