The Impact of Digital Leadership on Organizational Innovation in China’s Baijiu Industry: The Mediating Function of Employees’ Digital Capabilities

Digital leadership, as a core organizational capability driving technological transformation, plays a pivotal role in the digitalization of traditional industries. Focusing on employees of Sichuan Baijiu enterprises in China and grounded in upper echelons theory, this study develops a theoretical framework in which digital leadership and organizational learning influence organizational innovation through the mediating mechanism of employees’ digital capabilities. Using survey data from 309 employees of Baijiu enterprises, we employ partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test our hypotheses. The empirical results reveal three key findings: (1) digital leadership positively affects organizational innovation by enhancing employees’ digital capabilities; (2) employees’ digital capabilities partially mediate the relationships between digital leadership and organizational innovation, as well as between organizational learning and innovation outcomes; and (3) these capabilities serve as a critical transmission channel that amplifies the effect of organizational learning on innovation, thereby forming a “learning–capability–innovation” chain. This study extends upper echelons theory to the digital transformation context of traditional manufacturing industries. By introducing employee-level digital capabilities as a key mediating variable, it provides both theoretical insights and practical implications for Baijiu enterprises and analogous traditional industries seeking to foster innovation through strengthening digital leadership, building learning-oriented organizations, and developing employees’ digital competencies.