From data to capability: how digital human resource management and digital assets jointly enhance digital transformation performance

Purpose This study explores how digital human resource management (DHRM) and digital assets jointly shape digital transformation performance in manufacturing firms. In this study, digital assets primarily refer to digital technology and data resources. The study aims to reveal how human–data synergy enhances firms' digital capability building and improves transformation outcomes in the digital era. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on human–data interaction (HDI) theory and dynamic capability theory, this study conceptualizes digital transformation as an input–interaction–capability–performance process. Based on offline survey data collected from 106 Chinese manufacturing firms, hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapped mediation and moderation tests were used to examine the proposed relationships. Findings The results show that DHRM, digital technology, and data resources each have significant positive effects on digital transformation performance. Digital dynamic capabilities (DDCs) – the firm's ability to sense, seize and transform in response to digital opportunities – serve as the core mechanism linking these antecedents to performance. The interaction between DHRM and digital technology, as well as the interaction between DHRM and data resources, significantly strengthens DDCs formation. In addition, platform ecosystem embedding positively moderates the relationship between DDCs and digital transformation performance. Practical implications The findings suggest that manufacturing firms should not only invest in digital assets, including digital technology and data resources, but also develop DHRM as an organizational mechanism for activating and coordinating these assets. Firms should further strengthen digital dynamic capabilities and deepen their embedding in platform ecosystems in order to improve the performance returns of digital transformation. Originality/value This study extends HDI theory from micro-level human–data engagement to the organizational level by identifying DHRM as the human-side mechanism through which digital assets are interpreted, coordinated, and transformed into capability outcomes. It also enriches dynamic capability theory by showing that DDCs emerge from the coordinated interaction between DHRM and digital assets and that their performance effects depend partly on platform ecosystem embedding. The study offers new insight into how manufacturing firms achieve digital transformation performance through the joint development of human-side mechanisms, digital assets, and ecosystem connections.