When knowledge flows across boundaries: how digital leadership facilitates knowledge transfer performance in subsidiary clusters of overseas Chinese enterprises

This study investigates how digital leadership in the digital-intelligent era influences knowledge transfer performance among subsidiary clusters of overseas Chinese enterprises across organizational boundaries. Drawing on the theory of digital technology affordance, a moderated chain mediation model was constructed and empirically tested using survey data from 396 firms. The results reveal that digital platform capability and inter-enterprise knowledge co-creation act as independent and chain mediators between digital leadership and knowledge transfer performance. Mastery climate moderates these mediating paths. This study extends empowerment theory to inter-organizational contexts and offers implications for knowledge management in overseas Chinese enterprises.