Empowering organisational commitment through digital transformation capabilities: The role of digital leadership and a continuous learning environment

Abstract

Although research has shown that leveraging technologies and creating a new organisational identity are critical to staying competitive in a digital business environment, these assumptions have focused mainly on operational performance and exclude the impact on the workplace and employees. The challenge of attracting employees in the context of digital transformation is leading organisations to explore drivers of commitment. Further research is needed into the key factors that bind employees to an organisation. This study seeks to advance knowledge on this individual frontier by proposing a model in which digital leadership and a continuous learning environment mediate the impact of digital transformation capabilities on organisational commitment. Testing our model through an empirical study from Spain shows an effect of both mediators. The paper thus contributes to the IS literature by identifying two mediators and their role in achieving organisational commitment. These results also suggest a new way to approach research in digital transformation by opening a new frontier on the individual level and charting a path for future study. Moreover, the results have great practical value, generating implications for organisations and new avenues of future research to explore the boundary conditions of the individual frontier.