Dual pathways from digital technology adoption to performance: reconfiguration and value co-creation in Thai medium-sized enterprises

This study examined how digital technology adoption translates into performance outcomes in medium-sized enterprises and whether innovation, productivity, and sustainability operate through similar or distinct organizational mechanisms. A cross-sectional survey of 489 employees across Thai medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing, wholesale, retail, and service sectors was analyzed using hierarchical partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with a reflective–reflective architecture to test ten higher-order constructs. Technology readiness, organizational factors, and environmental context jointly drove adoption, whereas stakeholder perspectives exerted no significant direct effect. Two downstream pathways emerged: an internally oriented route, through reconfiguration capability, driving innovation and productivity; and an externally oriented route, through value co-creation, driving sustainability. The resulting dual-pathway framework integrates Diffusion of Innovations, Dynamic Capabilities, the Technology Acceptance Model, and Service-Dominant Logic. Whereas prior work treated adoption-to-performance as a single mechanism, this study demonstrated that internal capability reconfiguration and external collaborative co-creation are functionally distinct, outcome-specific routes. For managers, innovation and productivity gains require investment in internal reconfiguration, while sustainability requires deliberate stakeholder collaboration; the two cannot substitute for each other. For policymakers in emerging economies, digital transformation programs should support both internal capability development and inter-organizational co-creation platforms.