The Effect of Digital Leadership on Sustainable Development in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: The Mediating Role of Organizational Learning

This study analyzes the impact of digital leadership on sustainable development through the mediating role of organizational learning. The research data was collected from 376 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Thanh Hoa province, then a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to analyze the research data and test its hypotheses. The results found a positive impact of digital leadership on the organization's sustainable development as well as on organizational learning, in which digital leadership has a stronger impact on organizational learning than it does on sustainable development. Furthermore, it has been shown that organizational learning plays a mediating role in the relationship between digital leadership and sustainable development. Therefore, the research contributes to providing a conceptual framework supported by empirical evidence for the role of organizational learning in enterprises’ sustainability and the need for digital leadership through organizational learning towards sustainability. From the results, the author proposed a number of recommendations to leaders for accelerating organizational learning and improving sustainable development of enterprises.