Exploring the nonlinear relationship between techno-overload and digital creativity in Industry 4.0 companies: the effects of digital leadership and digital self-efficacy

Lei Ren, Yishuai Yin, Xiaobin Zhang, Jiale Zhang and Shujie Diao

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 19, 4853-4867

Abstract: The widespread adoption of information communication technology (ICT) in today’s digital economy has made techno-overload a frequent occurrence in the workplace. Previous research on techno-overload mainly focuses on its negative impact on employee creativity. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JDR) model, this study aims to extend and refine previous findings by exploring both the positive and negative effects of techno-overload on employee creativity by identifying digital self-efficacy as the underlying mechanism and digital leadership as a key boundary condition qualifying the relationship between techno-overload and employee digital creativity. We conducted a two-stage questionnaire survey among full-time employees in smart manufacturing enterprises in South China to test the proposed relationships. The results revealed that techno-overload exhibited an inverted U-shaped effect on employees’ digital creativity and digital self-efficacy. Moderate techno-overload, instead of lower or higher techno-overload, improved digital self-efficacy and further stimulated digital creativity. Additionally, moderate techno-overload had a stronger positive effect on digital creativity through digital self-efficacy when digital leadership was higher. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of this study.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2495737 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:44:y:2025:i:19:p:4853-4867

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2495737

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().