Management Power, Open Strategy, and Organizational Structural Agility: A Dual-Mediation Framework for Digital Transformation Performance

Abstract

Despite extensive scholarly attention to individual antecedents of digital transformation, the joint governance mechanisms through which management power, open strategy adoption, and organizational structural agility collectively generate digital transformation performance remain undertheorized and empirically underexplored, particularly in Southeast Asian emerging markets. Drawing on Upper Echelon Theory and the Dynamic Capabilities Framework, this study proposes and tests a dual-mediation model in which management power, open strategy adoption, and organizational structural agility serve as independent variables; digital transformation intensity and organizational learning capability function as sequential mediators; and digital transformation performance constitutes the dependent variable. Survey data collected from 312 senior executives in Vietnamese manufacturing and technology enterprises were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that management power exerts the strongest direct effect on digital transformation intensity, while open strategy adoption generates the largest indirect contribution through organizational learning capability. Organizational structural agility functions as a necessary enabling condition for both direct transformation intensity and the learning-to-performance pathway. All nine proposed hypotheses are supported. These results extend Upper Echelon Theory to the governance-transformation nexus, provide the first PLS-SEM validation of dual sequential mediation in this domain, and offer actionable guidance for executives, boards, and policymakers seeking to accelerate digitaltransformation in emerging market contexts.