Impact of the digital transformation of Chinese new energy vehicle enterprises on innovation performance

Abstract Digital transformation involves fundamental changes in business models, organizational structure, corporate culture, and even the way in which customers interact. Chinese new energy vehicle companies hope to achieve faster response speeds, greater operational efficiency, and better user experiences through digital transformation. Therefore, exploring how to successfully carry out digital transformation and its true impact on enterprise performance is of profound significance. The digital transformation of enterprises requires the embedding and absorption of network relationships to acquire and transform external resources and technologies, which further affects the innovation performance of these enterprises. This article introduces absorptive capacity as a mediating variable and network embeddedness as a moderating variable to construct a theoretical model, attempting to elucidate the mechanism of the impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation performance. By combining theoretical and empirical analysis, the research hypotheses are tested, and the results show that 1. digital transformation (digital technology, digital products, and digital platforms) has a positive impact on enterprise innovation performance, 2. absorptive capacity plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance, and 3. the embeddedness of network relationships has a significant positive moderating effect on the digital transformation of enterprises and their innovation performance. This article delves into an effective approach involving digital transformation, absorptive capacity, and enterprise innovation performance; analyses the moderating effect of network embeddedness; and concludes that the research findings have implications for the development of related research on digital transformation and enterprise innovation. The timely activities of enterprises to effectively carry out digital transformation, as well as the formulation of relevant policies, have positive significance.