Leveraging digital connectivity for innovation performance: a fsQCA study on Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms

The digital connectivity view (DCV) represents a distinct strategic framework for understanding how firms leverage interconnected digital technologies to create sustainable competitive advantages in global markets. While digital connectivity promises enhanced innovation performance, organizations face significant challenges in effectively leveraging these capabilities, with outcomes remaining highly uneven across industries. This study examines how different configurations of digital connectivity elements and organizational capabilities drive innovation performance in manufacturing firms through an integrated theoretical framework combining dynamic capabilities theory and DCV. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 63 Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms, the research identifies multiple distinct pathways to high innovation performance. The findings reveal four key mechanisms that explain how firms effectively leverage digital connectivity, with digital-architecture resources playing a central role. Different capability configurations produce varying levels of radical and incremental innovation outcomes. The research advances innovation management literature by empirically validating configurational patterns, developing a novel theoretical framework bridging DCV with dynamic capabilities theory, and providing practical insights for manufacturing firms in emerging economies navigating global crises while maintaining innovation vitality.