Linking digital transformation contextual conditions to quality performance through supply chain quality integration: a TOE and organisational information processing perspective

Despite the prevalence of digital transformation (DT), the mechanisms through which manufacturing firms improve quality performance (QP) via supply chain quality integration (SCQI) remain underexplored. Rather than treating DT as a monolithic latent construct, we integrate the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework with organisational information processing theory (OIPT) to investigate how the technical, organisational, and environmental factors (TF, OF and EF) that underpin digitalisation relate to QP via internal and external quality integration (IQI and EQI). Surveying 414 Chinese manufacturers and using PLS-SEM, we find that all three conditions positively relate to both IQI and EQI, with TF-IQI and EF-EQI links being strongest. Both IQI and EQI drive QP, with EQI exhibiting a stronger coefficient. Mediation patterns differ: partial for TF, full for OF, and indirect via EQI for EF. This study clarifies the DT-measurement boundary, positions SCQI as a quality governance mechanism, and offers implications for digital-era supply chain quality management.