Work

Digitalization and organizational capabilities: a mechanism-based integrative review

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Purpose: This study addresses the fragmented understanding of how digitalization shapes organizational capabilities by identifying and synthesizing the underlying mechanisms. Methods: A mechanism-based systematic literature review was conducted on 116 core studies published in Q1 journals between 2015 and 2024. A structured multi-stage screening and classification process was applied to identify key mechanisms and their interrelationships. Results: The findings reveal four mechanism families-enabling, cognitive, collaborative, and adaptive-and twelve sub-mechanisms explaining how digital structures, cognition, and collaboration interact to reconfigure organizational capabilities. Three dominant causal chains-enabling → adaptive, cognitive → adaptive, and collaborative → adaptive-are identified. Based on these results, the Digital Capability System (DCS) is proposed, conceptualizing capability evolution as a recursive, multi-level, and boundary-spanning system. Discussion: This study contributes by moving beyond linear antecedent-outcome models and advancing a mechanism-based, multi-level perspective on digital capability development. It also identifies key research gaps, including static treatments of infrastructure, output-biased innovation measures, and cross-level inconsistencies, and provides an agenda for future research and practical guidance for designing digitally enabled capability systems.

Source: Frontiers in Psychology

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1745412

Authors: Sen Jia, Khai Wah Khaw, Yiqi Zhou

Institutions: Universiti Sains Malaysia, University of Malaya

Language: English

Topic: Innovation and Knowledge Management

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,801