When Does Technology Readiness Translate into Digital Transformation? The Roles of Organizational Agility and Digital Transformational Leadership in the Indonesian Navy

Abstract Technology readiness provides a foundation for digital transformation, but how preparedness becomes embedded in organizational practices remains insufficiently understood in defence institutions. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, this study examines organizational agility as a mediator of the relationship between organizational technology readiness and digital transformation, and digital transformational leadership as a moderator of both the readiness–agility and agility–transformation relationships in the Indonesian Navy. A cross-sectional survey of 977 naval personnel recruited through convenience sampling was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Respondents assessed their current units, with analyses conducted at the individual level. Technology readiness was positively associated with agility and transformation, while agility was positively associated with transformation. Agility partially mediated the readiness–transformation relationship at the mean level of leadership (indirect β = 0.072). Leadership positively moderated the readiness–agility (β = 0.272) and agility–transformation (β = 0.443) relationships, while its conditional direct association with transformation was negative (β = −0.554). The model explained 57.3% of the variance in agility and 47.9% in transformation. These findings advance a contingent explanation of digital transformation by distinguishing technological preparedness from adaptive resource use and identifying leadership as a condition shaping both capability relationships. For Navy management, the results direct attention to coordinating technology investment with adaptive workflows and sustained implementation support. The cross-sectional evidence supports these conditional associations without establishing causal effects.