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Business Review

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1040-9294

Abstract

Digitalizing operations is essential for gaining and maintaining competitive advantage, driving product and process innovations, and ensuring effective decision-making. The performance and engagement of today’s workforce are also contingent upon its capability to handle digital technologies. Here, the digital prowess of the leaders plays a cardinal role in the digitalization process. Keeping this in mind, this research aims to determine the impact of digital leadership on employees’ digital literacy, and their subsequent effect on key employee outcomes like engagement and performance in the telecom sector of Pakistan. Data was collected from 369 telecom workers employed at the three major Pakistani telecom companies. Quantitative analysis via structural equation modelling revealed that digital leadership plays a conducive role in building employees’ digital literacy skills, thereby improving their engagement and performance at work. The research underscores the pertinence of digitalization for the modern workforce and reiterates the urgency of digitalization initiatives for businesses.

Keywords

Digitalization, digital leadership, digital literacy, employee engagement, employee performance, telecom sector

Clarification of Conflict of Interest

None

DOI

10.54784/1990-6587.1728

Journal of Economic Literature Subject Codes

C0, L1, L2, M0, O0

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received:

April 03, 2025

Revised:

August 28, 2025

Accepted:

September 03, 2025

Published:

September 15, 2025

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Publication Stage

Online First

 
 

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