More is better? Exploring the impact of digital hoarding on employee innovation performance in the workplace

Purpose Digital transformation is crucial for enterprises to adapt to rapidly changing market environments. However, digital hoarding behaviors in highly digital environments may hinder corporate innovation and development. This study aims to investigate the impact of employees’ digital hoarding behavior on their innovation performance, addressing a critical challenge that enterprises face in fostering innovation during digital transformation. Design/methodology/approach A moderated mediation model is constructed and tested using survey data from 411 employees in Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The analysis is performed via structural equation modeling with Smart PLS 4.0. Findings Digital hoarding significantly negatively affects employee innovation performance. This relationship is dually mediated by reduced knowledge integration capability and increased cognitive overload. Furthermore, information literacy mitigates (negatively moderates) the adverse effects of digital hoarding on these two mediators. Practical implications Managers should govern data accumulation rather than just encouraging storage. Mitigating digital hoarding requires enhancing employees’ information literacy, not merely suppressing the behavior. Digital transformation should be reframed as a governance issue focused on data availability, not scale. Ultimately, success lies in shifting from “data accumulation” to a truly “data-driven” model. Originality/value This study systematically examines digital hoarding’s impact on innovation performance from an individual behavior perspective, addressing the gap in existing research that predominantly focuses on technological or organizational factors. Furthermore, it uncovers the dual mediating roles of knowledge integration capability and cognitive overload, and introduces information literacy as a critical buffer, offering new insights for managing digital behaviors.