The Impact of Digital Orientation on Digital Product Innovation: The Mediating Role of Organizational Unlearning

Drawing on the attention-based view (ABV), this study explores the effects of digital business orientation and digital technology orientation on digital product innovation performance and the mediating roles of organizational beliefs unlearning and organizational routines unlearning, and investigates the moderating effect of the firm network’s digital atmosphere on the relationships between digital business/technology orientations and organizational beliefs/routines unlearning. Using Smart PLS 3.3.9, data collected from 422 effective online survey responses from enterprises undertaking digitalization in China were analyzed. The results show, first, that both digital business orientation and digital technology orientation positively impact organizational beliefs unlearning and organizational routines unlearning, which in turn enhance digital product innovation performance. Moreover, digital technology orientation has greater effects on both types of unlearning than digital business orientation. Second, both organizational beliefs unlearning and organizational routines unlearning partially mediate the relationships between digital business/technology orientations and digital product innovation performance. Third, the firm network’s digital atmosphere positively moderates the relationship between digital business/technology orientations and organizational routines unlearning but does not significantly moderate the relationship between digital business/technology orientations and organizational beliefs unlearning. These findings not only enrich the research on the relationship between digital orientation and organizational unlearning but also offer practical insights for enterprises seeking to foster digital innovation.