This study aims to examine the impact of digital transformation (DT) on enterprise innovation quality. Furthermore, it explores the mediating role of intellectual capital configurations.
This study develops a mixed mediation model linking DT, intellectual capital configurations, and innovation quality. By combining fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with traditional linear regression methods, the study examines the innovation quality of Chinese listed manufacturing firms during 2011–2022 under the context of digital transformation.
The empirical results reveal that DT can significantly enhance innovation quality. Three intellectual capital configurations – technology talents and knowledge-based talents synergy-driven (Configuration S1), technology talents and innovation culture synergy-driven (Configuration S2) and technology talents driven (Configuration S3) – are identified as effective pathways to achieving high innovation quality. Moreover, only the first two configurations served as mediating pathways between DT and innovation quality. The heterogeneity analysis shows that Configuration S1 is mainly concentrated in firms at the mature stage, while Configuration S2 is predominantly found in firms at the growth and decline stages.
Firms should manage intellectual capital as an interdependent system, aligning human, structural and relational capital rather than uniformly increasing all dimensions. They should continuously monitor and adapt these configurations, as DT can both enhance synergies and exacerbate mismatches. Moreover, firms should adopt life-cycle-specific strategies, tailoring intellectual capital combinations to growth, maturity and decline stages to maximize innovation quality.
This study contributes to the intellectual capital literature by shifting the analytical lens from linear, independent effects to a configurational perspective that captures the complex, conjunctural and asymmetric nature of mediation mechanisms. It also provides a new theoretical framework and methodological toolkit for understanding how DT empowers innovation quality through configurations of intellectual capital.
