The Impact of Digital Leadership and Digital Culture on Innovative Work Behavior and Adaptive Performance: An Empirical Study in the Automotive Sector

This study aims to examine the influence of digital leadership and digital culture on innovative work behavior and adaptive performance in the automotive sector. The research examines the moderating influence of digital culture on the relationship between digital leadership and dependent variables, alongside the mediating effect of innovative work behavior on the connection between digital leadership and adaptive performance. The study also examines whether employees' perceptions of these constructs and their adaptive performance levels significantly differ based on demographic characteristics. A quantitative methodology was utilized, employing a relational survey model. Data were collected via online questionnaires from a sample of 451 employees in the automotive sector. The hypotheses were assessed using the Process Macro 4.1 extension in the SPSS 26 software suite. The findings demonstrate that digital leadership and digital culture substantially improve innovative work behavior, accounting for a significant proportion of the variance (82%). Digital culture, however, demonstrated a negative moderating effect on the relationship between digital leadership and innovative work behavior. The findings demonstrate that digital leadership, digital culture, and innovative work behavior significantly improve adaptive performance, accounting for 87% of the variance collectively.Consistent with previous research, digital culture negatively moderates the relationship between digital leadership and adaptive performance. The analysis ultimately demonstrated a harmful mediating effect of innovative work behavior on the relationship between digital leadership and adaptive performance.