Digital Technology Adoption and Collaborative Innovation in Chinese High-Speed Rail Industry: Does Organizational Agility Matter?

This study aims to assess the effect of digital technology adoption on collaborative innovation in the Chinese high-speed rail industry, along with an exploration of the moderating role of organizational agility (OA). This study distinguishes between vertical and horizontal collaborative innovations. Based on data from the Chinese high-speed rail industry from 2009 to 2021, we assess the impact of digital technology adoption on vertical and horizontal collaborative innovations with two-way fixed effect regression models. The moderating role of OA is also clarified. The results indicate that digital technology adoption has a significantly positive impact on the vertical and horizontal collaborative innovations of the high-speed rail industry in China. OA significantly enhances the abovementioned relationships. This is one of the first empirical studies focusing on digitally driven innovation in emerging economies. Insight and a strategy for the application of digital technologies in collaborative innovation is provided. Additionally, this study demonstrates that successful digital transformation depends on the construction of OA, which enriches the existing digital technology research and provides a reference for firms to accelerate digital transformation.