Unraveling the Factors Influencing Digital Transformation and Technology Adoption in High-Tech Firms: The Moderating Role of Digital Literacy

In an era of rapid technological advancement, digital transformation is crucial for high-tech firms to remain competitive and drive innovation. Digital transformation (DT) necessitates incorporating various technologies to enhance a firm’s capacity to collect, integrate, process, and utilize business data. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors influencing DT and the adoption of digital technology in the context of high-tech firm performance (FP) with the moderating role of digital literacy (DL). This study analyses the key factors influencing DT and the adoption of digital technologies, focusing on their impact on FP in high-tech firms, with DL as a moderating factor. The significance of this study lies in its comprehensive analysis of the perceived ease of use, time-saving, security risk, and financial risk, as well as their roles in driving DT. The hypothesis was investigated using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The data was collected from 521 respondents through a self-administered survey of high-tech firms. The results describe that perceived ease of use, time-saving, security risk, and perceived financial risk have a significant and positive relationship with DT. Moreover, DT partially mediates the relationship between perceived time-saving and FP. The study’s practical implications emphasize the need for high-tech firms to address user perceptions and risks associated with digital technologies to implement DT and achieve improved performance successfully.