The impact of digital transformation of manufacturing on corporate performance — The mediating effect of business model innovation and the moderating effect of innovation capability

Digital technologies have been rapidly changing traditional industries. In the given context, this study reveals the internal influence mechanism of digital transformation on the corporate performance of the manufacturing industry based on the resource-based view theory. We build a theoretical framework incorporating business model innovation and innovation capability as mediator and moderator variables. To evaluate our hypothesis, we conduct an empirical study on 255 Chinese manufacturing enterprises. We classify digital transformation into exploitative and explorative transformations with the ambidexterity theory. The results show that exploitative and explorative digital transformations significantly and positively impact corporate performance, and business model innovation has a significant mediating effect. Innovation capability positively moderates the impact of exploitative and explorative digital transformations on business model innovation and moderates the mediating effect of business model innovation. This paper provides support for promoting the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy.