The Impact of Digital Literacy on College Students’ Sustainable Innovation Performance: A Dual-Path Mediation by Proactive Social Behavior and Critical Thinking Dispositions

Cultivating talent with digital literacy and the capacity for sustainable innovation performance is a critical mission of higher education. Merely enhancing digital skills does not necessarily lead to innovation, and the mechanisms underlying this transformation remain to be clarified. This study adopts human capital theory as its analytical framework and constructs a parallel mediation model, focusing on the dual mediation pathways of proactive social behavior and critical thinking dispositions as “soft skill” mediators. Using a sample of 18,534 undergraduate students from Chinese research universities, the study employed a questionnaire survey and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap method to examine the relationship between digital literacy and sustainable innovation performance, as well as the roles of the two mediation pathways. The results indicate a significant positive correlation between Chinese university students’ digital literacy and their sustainable innovation performance. Proactive social behavior and critical thinking dispositions exhibit significant mediating effects between the two variables, forming a dual-path mechanism in which the direct path effect is stronger. The findings deepen our understanding of how digital literacy relates to sustainable innovation performance and provide a reference for higher education institutions in cultivating talent for sustainable innovation.