The role of organisational culture in facilitating agile and digital transformation: An empirical study based on survey and interview data

Background: Digital transformation is essential for competitiveness in a rapidly changing business landscape, while organisational culture can enable or constrain its success. Objectives: The research investigated the influence of organisational culture, as an independent variable, on organisational performance in digital transformation initiatives within medium-to-large software development organisations. Method: A convergent mixed-methods design combined a survey (N = 315) with 18 semi-structured interviews involving professionals in agile and digital initiatives. SPSS was used for reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), bivariate correlations, and multivariate regression to examine relationships between variables. Interview transcripts were thematically coded and analysed in ATLAS.ti. Results: The empirical results indicated that culture practices were positively associated with a supportive agile (Pearson r ≈ 0.32). Simple regression showed culture significantly predicted agile (R2 ≈ 0.10). A multiple regression predicting digital transformation outcomes from culture and agile was significant (R2 ≈ 0.40), with agile the stronger unique predictor and culture adding a smaller but meaningful contribution. The qualitative analysis showed that organisational culture is a fundamental but indirect factor in digital transformation. Conclusion: The study measured how culture influences agile methodology’s role in digital transformation, highlighting its impact on success in various corporate environments. Contribution: The findings position organisational culture as a key enabling condition, rather than a direct cause, of digital transformation outcomes. Managers should therefore embed cultural goals in agile roadmaps, standardise essential routines, and minimise structural hand-offs to sustain improvements across teams.