How Multidimensional Digital Empowerment Affects Technology Innovation Performance: The Moderating Effect of Adaptability to Technology Embedding

Abstract

Technology innovation in high-end equipment manufacturing (HEM) enterprises technology innovation plays an important role in supporting national economies and social development, accelerating the speed of digital transformation. Digital empowerment aggravates the dynamics, complexity, and uncertainty of technology innovation in HEM enterprises. In order to improve the innovation performance mechanism of China’s HEM enterprises, the adaptability of technology embedding and digital empowerment are introduced to further explain the direct and the moderating effect. Specifically, through a literature review and practical research, the connotation and dimensional division of digital empowerment are defined. According to empowerment tools, digital empowerment is divided into resource empowerment and structural empowerment, and according to the empowerment actor relationships, digital empowerment is divided into platform empowerment and ecological empowerment. Additionally, 436 HEM enterprises are used as research objects to build a conceptual model of the different digital empowerment dimensions, adaptability to technology embedding and technology innovation performance. The research results show that resource empowerment and structural empowerment have U–shaped effects on technology innovation performance, and platform empowerment and ecological empowerment positively affect technology innovation performance. Then, adaptability to technology embedding positively moderates the U-shaped relationship between structural empowerment and technology innovation performance. Adaptability to technology embedding positively moderates the relationship between resource empowerment, platform empowerment, ecological empowerment and technology innovation performance. The research findings deepen the connotation and dimension of digital empowerment, demonstrating the nonlinear relationship between digital empowerment and technology innovation performance of HEM enterprises. Additionally, the research expands on the new applications of adaptability to technology embedding in the digital transformation of manufacturing.