THE IMPACT OF SUPPLY CHAIN DIGITALIZATION ON PERFORMANCE IN GUANGDONG’S FOOD INDUSTRY: A MODERATED MULTIPLE-MEDIATION ANALYSIS

Abstract

Driven by rapid digital transformation, the food industry faces persistent integration challenges and unclear digitalization mechanisms. Grounded in supply chain integration theory, this study develops a moderated multiple-mediation model linking digital deployment, digital governance capability, and digital collaboration capability to supply chain performance through supplier, manufacturing process, and customer integration, with supply chain network characteristics as a moderator. Survey data from food enterprises in Guangdong were analyzed using structural equation modeling.Results reveal that digital deployment does not significantly enhance supplier or customer integration, whereas digital governance and collaboration capabilities consistently strengthen all integration dimensions. Performance gains are realized primarily through manufacturing process integration, which emerges as the dominant mediating pathway, while several supplier and customer integration paths remain insignificant. Moreover, network characteristics significantly amplify the performance effects of supplier and internal process integration but show no significant moderation on the customer integration pathway.These findings challenge the assumption that technological investment alone drives supply chain performance and demonstrate that digital transformation is capability-driven and structurally contingent rather than universally effective.