Unraveling the Impact of Digitalisation on Apparel Exporter’s Performance: Investigating the Mediation of Innovation and Export Market Orientation.

Abstract

In an era dominated by rapid technological advancements, digitalisation has become a significant driver of reshaping the apparel industry. Primarily, this research aims to examine the impact of digitalisation on export performance and, subsequently, the role of innovation and export market orientation (EMO) that mediates the impact of digitalisation on export performance in the context of Sri Lankan apparel exporters. The study focuses on innovation in terms of product and process innovation, while EMO is the firm’s effort to incorporate marketing concepts into its export operations. A structured questionnaire was utilised to collect data from apparel exporters that were chosen from a simple random sampling technique. Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is being utilised to evaluate the developed hypotheses. This research contributes to bridging the knowledge ambiguity of understanding the mediating impact of innovation and EMO when apparel export ventures seek to enhance their performance by embracing digital technologies. While the direct effects of digitalisation on innovation and EMO and EMO on export performance are found to be significant, the findings revealed that there is a partial mediation of EMO when digitalisation influences export performance.