Digital Strategy, Leadership, and Knowledge Management as Economic Drivers of Transformation Success in the Manufacturing Sector

This study investigates how digital transformation leadership, digital transformation success, decision strategy, and decision knowledge management interact within China's manufacturing industry, a sector at the forefront of industrial structural upgrading and modernization. Using partial least squares structural equation modelling, the analysis evaluates direct, indirect, and moderating effects among these constructs. The results revealed that digital strategy both directly and indirectly through digital knowledge management is the most influential driver of digital transformation success, underscoring the role of intelligent decision-support systems in shaping transformation outcomes. Digital knowledge management emerges as a critical mediator that translates decision-support capabilities into effective digital transformation, while digital transformation leadership, despite exerting a smaller direct impact, indirectly enhances digital knowledge management and amplifies the link between digital strategy and digital transformation success through moderating effects.