Organization performance in smart working settings: the mediating role of digital leadership

Purpose The development and diffusion of digital technologies, along with the pervasive dissemination of powerful and easy-to-use mobile devices, may encourage organizations to implement smart working (SW). This study investigates the relationship between the SW enabling resources and the organization performance. Furthermore, this study aims at analysing the mediating role of digital leadership on the relationship between the SW enabling resources and organization performance. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a case study approach to gather data on the underlying dimensions of the research model and a survey-based methodology to empirically test the proposed hypotheses. A total of 234 employees from one of the largest public utilities companies in Italy participated in the survey. After data cleaning, 209 questionnaires were deemed valid for analysis, yielding a response rate of 89.3%. Findings The results of the PLS structural model analysis confirmed the pivotal role of resources and digital leadership on organizations’ performance. The findings reveal that all resources impact on organizational performance and highlight capabilities, such as digital leadership, as an explaining mechanism of the success in achieving optimal organization performance when implementing the SW. Practical implications The findings have implications for companies that want to gain advantage by SW in terms of performance improvement. Specifically, the results indicate that companies are more likely to enhance their performance when implementing SW by adopting specific resources and developing capabilities as digital leadership. Originality/value Despite the relevance of the resources (i.e. technologies, skills and culture) and digital capabilities in achieving optimal performance in organizations, their role in the effective implementation of SW has not been investigated in the academic literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. This study fills this gap by developing a research model grounded on the resource-based view theory to investigate the relationship between resources, digital leadership and organization performance in the context of SW implementation.