Digital and Ambidextrous Capabilities in Project–Supply Chain Systems: The Mediating Roles of Information Processing and Decision-Making Speed

Abstract

Digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for organizations operating in project-based environments embedded within complex and uncertain supply chains. However, despite substantial investments in digital technologies, empirical findings on their performance implications remain inconsistent, suggesting that digitalization alone does not ensure superior outcomes. Prior research has largely examined digitalization and ambidexterity in project management (PM) and supply chain management (SCM) separately, while paying limited attention to the organizational mechanisms through which digital capabilities create value. Addressing these gaps, this study develops and empirically tests an integrated model explaining how digital and ambidextrous project–supply chain (PM–SCM) capabilities influence organizational performance through information processing capability and decision-making speed, under conditions of technological uncertainty and environmental turbulence.

Grounded in dynamic capabilities theory, information processing theory, and contingency theory, the study proposes a sequential mediation framework. Survey data were collected from 412 project managers, supply chain managers, and senior managers in project-intensive industries and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that digital project management capability, project data analytics capability, agile–hybrid project governance, supply chain digital intelligence, supply chain visibility maturity, and supply chain ambidexterity all have significant positive effects on information processing capability. Information processing capability, in turn, strongly enhances decision-making speed.

Decision-making speed significantly improves project performance, supply chain performance, operational performance, and competitive advantage, fully mediating the effects of information processing capability on these outcomes. Moderation analyses further indicate that these indirect relationships are stronger under high technological uncertainty and environmental turbulence. Overall, the findings demonstrate that digital transformation creates value not through technology adoption alone, but through enhanced information processing and faster decision-making in uncertain project–supply chain systems.