Sustainable Digital Transformation and Business Competitiveness in Emerging-Economy Organizations: The Moderating Role of Economic Sector and Organizational Age in Piura, Peru

Background Sustainable digital transformation is increasingly treated as a strategic lever for competitiveness, but evidence on the organizational conditions under which it pays off in emerging economies is limited. We examined its association with business competitiveness and tested whether economic sector and organizational age moderate that effect, separately and jointly. Methods In a quantitative, cross-sectional design, we surveyed 361 formally registered organizations in Piura, Peru, across the commerce, services, manufacturing, agro-industry, and construction sectors. A 30-item questionnaire measured sustainable digital transformation (economic, social, and environmental dimensions) and business competitiveness (operational efficiency, innovation capacity, and market positioning). Content validity was confirmed by expert judgment (Aiken’s V 0.81–0.97). The measurement model was evaluated with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (maximum likelihood), and hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression (Hayes’ Model 3, HC3 robust standard errors, 10,000 bootstrap resamples). Results Sustainable digital transformation was positively and significantly associated with business competitiveness (β = 0.657; p < 0.001; R 2 = 0.432; b = 0.660 in the full model). The six-dimension measurement model showed adequate fit (CFI = 0.950; RMSEA = 0.047) and discriminant validity (all HTMT ≤0.754). Neither economic sector (p = 0.816) nor organizational age (p = 0.691) moderated the effect alone, but their joint moderation was significant (robust Wald F(4,341) = 3.12; p = 0.015), concentrated in manufacturing, where the estimated association weakened across organizational age categories and was no longer statistically significant in the oldest category. Conclusions Sustainable digital transformation was strongly associated with perceived business competitiveness among organizations in Piura. The association varied jointly by sector and organizational age, particularly in manufacturing; the cross-sectional evidence does not establish causal effects or generalizability beyond the study setting.