This study aims to explore the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) affordances and employee digital resilience. It analyzes the mediating role of social capital (including structural social capital and relational social capital), and examines the moderating effect of digital knowledge.
This study adopts a positivist philosophy and a cross-sectional survey design targeting full-time employees with prior AI usage experience across multiple industries in China. Data were collected through purposive non-probability sampling via the Credamo platform, yielding 355 valid responses. The sample size exceeded PLS-SEM requirements based on the 10-times rule and G*Power analysis. Established Likert-scale measures were analyzed using PLS-SEM to test mediation and moderation effects.
The results show that: (1) AI affordances positively influence the accumulation of employee social capital, (2) both structural social capital and relational social capital plays a partial mediating role between AI affordances and digital resilience and (3) digital knowledge acts as a double-edged sword, both enhancing and inhibiting the formation of structural and relational social capital, depending on the type of AI affordance involved.
First, this study contributes to social capital theory by revealing the mechanism through which AI influences employee digital resilience from the technology affordance perspective. Second, this paper also contributes to the social capital literature by revealing the mediator role of social capital (including structural social capital and relational social capital) between AI affordances and digital resilience. Third, this study further reveals the moderating effect of employee digital knowledge on AI-driven social capital, deepening the understanding of the boundary conditions for technological empowerment.
