Leading the Digital Supply Chain: Serial Mediation of Digital Culture and Technology Readiness

Abstract

In the modern era of globalization and digital competition, organizations are increasingly embracing digital transformation to enhance their operational performance, agility, and innovation. This study, titled “Leading the Digital Supply Chain: Serial Mediation of Digital Culture and Technology Readiness,” explores how Top Management Support (TMS) influences Digital Supply Chain Adoption (DSC) through the sequential mediating roles of Digital Culture (DC) and Technology Readiness (TR). Grounded in Transformational Leadership Theory and the Technology Readiness Model, the study develops a serial mediation framework to explain how leadership commitment shapes an innovation-driven culture that enhances technological preparedness, ultimately driving digital adoption within supply chains. A quantitative research design with a positivist and deductive approach was employed to empirically test the proposed hypotheses. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey of supply chain professionals across manufacturing, logistics, and service sectors in Pakistan. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4, the study assessed the measurement and structural models for validity, reliability, and explanatory power. The measurement model demonstrated excellent psychometric properties (Composite Reliability = 0.824–0.922; AVE = 0.541–0.703; HTMT ≤ 0.83), ensuring that the constructs were both reliable and distinct. The structural analysis confirmed that TMS has a strong positive impact on DC (β = 0.592, p < 0.001), while DC significantly enhances TR (β = 0.670, p < 0.001). Both TR (β = 0.416, p < 0.001) and DC (β = 0.248, p = 0.006) directly improve DSC. The mediation results reveal that DC (β = 0.147, p = 0.014) and TR (β = 0.279, p = 0.002) each serve as significant mediators, and that their serial mediation effect (β = 0.165, p = 0.005) validates the proposed model. This demonstrates that leadership first fosters a digital culture, which builds technology readiness, subsequently enhancing digital supply chain adoption. The model exhibits strong explanatory power, explaining 65.2% of the variance in DSC (R² = 0.652), thus confirming its robustness and theoretical validity. The findings emphasize that digital transformation success depends not only on technological investment but also on leadership-driven cultural and organizational readiness. Practically, organizations should focus on strengthening leadership engagement, nurturing a culture of digital innovation, and investing in capability-building initiatives such as digital skills training and infrastructure enhancement. By aligning top management commitment with cultural and technological enablers, organizations can accelerate digital adoption, improve supply chain efficiency, and achieve sustainable competitive advantage.