Based on tournament theory, this study aims to reveal the role of industry tournament incentives in driving the digital transformation of enterprises. Moreover, this study explores the role of chain mediation in executives’ psychological and behavioral responses.
A theoretical analysis framework of “external stimulus → response behavior → transformation effect” was constructed. The A-share manufacturing companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2012 to 2021 were selected as the research samples for OLS regression.
The results show that industry tournament incentives have separate and chain-mediating effects on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises. Specifically, the two channels that have an impact are executives’ digital willingness and digital investment.
This research addresses the need for more motivation and efficiency in digital transformation in manufacturing companies as a source of decision-making. Additionally, it offers a lesson for manufacturing enterprises to advance their digital transformation – from strategy identification all the way to implementation.
This study solves part of the challenges of digital transformation at the source of decision-making. The authors introduce the competitive mechanism of industry tournament incentives to the digital transformation’s “new track”. The mechanism study part of this paper opens the “black box” between industry tournament incentives and the degree of digital transformation. In addition, the authors expanded their research on the factors influencing digital transformation and the economic consequences of industry tournaments.
