Examining the digital trust infrastructure as a driver of organizational innovation and scalability

Organizations today invest in artificial intelligence (AI), data governance, and algorithmic personalization capabilities to enhance innovation and maintain competitiveness in digitally intensive environments. However, limited research examines how technological capabilities transform into tangible organizational outcomes. The present study is based on socio-technical systems theory and examines how AI, data sovereignty, and algorithmic personalization capabilities can affect business model innovation and organizational scalability through digital trust infrastructure and entrepreneurial adaptability. The data were collected from 296 working professionals in technology-intensive organizations. A significant positive association was found between AI capability, data sovereignty capability, and the digital trust infrastructure, whereas algorithmic personalization capability showed no significant association with the digital trust infrastructure. Furthermore, digital trust infrastructure positively impacts entrepreneurial adaptability, which in turn positively affects the capability to innovate business models and the scalability of organizations. The proposed serial mediation framework receives partial empirical support, with stronger evidence for the pathway toward business model innovation than for organizational scalability. This study contributes to the STS theory by recognizing the role of the digital trust infrastructure as the interface between technological and social subsystems. It also provides valuable information on how to put digital capabilities into action to create sustainable innovation and scalable growth.