管理工程学报2025，Vol.39Issue(4)：33-46,14.DOI:10.13587/j.cnki.jieem.2025.04.003
断裂带视角下的董事会认知整合与企业数字化转型
Board cognitive integration and corporate digital transformation:A faultline perspective
摘要
Abstract
In the context of the digital economy,digital transformation has become a critical strategic choice for corporate survival and growth.However,firms face the challenge of substantial investments in digital technologies yielding limited returns,raising the question of how to overcome barriers to digital transformation.Existing research attributes the current dilemma to limitations in board-level strategic cognition,emphasizing the need for boards to reconfigure their cognitive frameworks in digital contexts.By integrating dimensions of cross-boundary,connectivity,and empowerment,such a cognitive framework can effectively guide digital transformation efforts.Drawing on the upper echelon theory,scholars in strategic management argue that board faultlines,defined as hypothetical dividing lines within the board based on the alignment of multiple attributes,reflect cognitive bases and influence intra-and inter-subgroup information elaboration and task conflict,providing a comprehensive depiction of cognitive integration processes within the boardroom.Thus,this study examines how the board cognitive faultline influences corporate digital transformation and the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of the digital strategic cognition framework.It also considers deeper contextual factors,including board network centrality and informal hierarchy,to provide actionable insights for navigating digital transformation in the digital era. Using a sample of A-share listed firms in China from 2010 to 2020,this study measures digital transformation as the ratio of digital-related intangible assets to total intangible assets and calculates the board cognitive faultline using the Fau binary-split algorithm.The findings reveal a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between the board cognitive faultline and digital transformation,a result that remains robust after various sensitivity and endogeneity tests.Moreover,network centrality and informal hierarchy have moderating effects on the relationship between the board cognitive faultline and enterprise digital transformation,both of which move the inflection point of their inverted U curve to the right.Mechanism analyses indicate that the board cognitive faultline influences digital transformation through information elaboration and task conflict.At the firm level,the faultline manifests as pathways to digital transformation through diversification,strategic resource reconfiguration,and business model innovation. The marginal contributions of this study are reflected in the following aspects:first,the board cognitive faultline is introduced into digitalization research,offering a faultline-based perspective to explore cognitive integration mechanisms within the boardroom.This advances the field beyond its traditional focus on individual managerial cognition.Second,a non-linear model linking the board cognitive faultline to corporate digital transformation is constructed,demonstrating through theoretical and empirical analysis how the digital strategic cognition framework mediates this relationship.This provides incremental contributions to upper echelons theory in the digital context.Third,network centrality and informal hierarchy are introduced as contextual factors to explore the activation conditions of the board cognitive faultline,which further expands the theoretical boundaries of faultline research within the digital era. The practical implications of this study lie in providing a broad cognitive perspective on corporate digital transformation.Given that the board cognitive faultline significantly affects digital transformation,with the digital strategic cognition framework playing a pivotal role,firms aiming for digital transformation should ensure diversity in board cognitive structures and foster creative information elaboration while avoiding excessive subgroup clustering that could exacerbate task conflict.Boards should actively build network relationships to leverage external information resources and enhance the information elaboration effects associated with faultlines.Moreover,the collaborative potential of informal hierarchical differences must be harnessed by constructing appropriate levels of hierarchical diversity to ensure orderly and effective board operations.关键词
数字化转型/董事会认知断裂带/数字战略认知框架/网络中心度/非正式层级Key words
Digital transformation/Board cognitive faultline/Digital strategic cognitive framework/Network centrality/Informal hierarchy分类
管理科学引用本文复制引用
王象路,罗瑾琏,耿新,钟竞..断裂带视角下的董事会认知整合与企业数字化转型[J].管理工程学报,2025,39(4):33-46,14.基金项目
国家自然科学基金项目(71772138、72072128) （71772138、72072128）
山东省社会科学规划研究项目(21CJJJ12). The National Natural Science Foundation of China(71772138,72072128) （21CJJJ12）
The Shandong Province Social Science Planning and Research Project(21CJJJ12) （21CJJJ12）
