Digital Transformation in Indian Enterprises: Leadership, Change Management, and Organisational Performance — Evidence from a Multi-Sector Survey

Author(s): Ragini Raghunathan

Affiliation: Department of Strategy and Organisational Behaviour, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kerala, India

Page No: 10-15

Volume issue & Publishing Year: Volume 3, Issue 7, 2026/07/02

Journal: International Journal of Modern Engineering and Management | IJMEM

ISSN NO: 3048-8230

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Abstract:

Digital transformation (DT) — defined as the organisational process of integrating digital technologies across all business functions to fundamentally alter value creation mechanisms, operational models, and stakeholder interactions — has emerged as the defining strategic imperative of the 2020s for Indian enterprises navigating simultaneous competitive disruption, post-pandemic acceleration, and government-driven digitisation mandates including India Stack, PM GatiShakti, and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. Despite its strategic centrality, empirical evidence on the organisational and managerial determinants of successful DT outcomes in the Indian enterprise context remains fragmented across sector-specific case studies and practitioner surveys that lack the methodological rigour required to identify causal mechanisms rather than mere correlations. This study presents results from a primary survey of 228 Indian enterprises across six sectors — Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI); Retail; Manufacturing; Healthcare; IT/ITeS; and Logistics — investigating the relationship between leadership commitment, structured change management adoption (operationalised using Kotter's 8-Step framework), digital skills investment, legacy IT constraints, and DT performance outcomes measured across revenue growth, cost reduction, EBITDA margin improvement, and employee engagement. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis, controlling for firm size and sector effects, reveals that leadership commitment (β=0.412, p<0.001), change management completeness (β=0.318, p<0.001), and digital skills investment (β=0.247, p<0.001) are the three strongest positive predictors of DT success, while legacy IT constraint (β=–0.214, p=0.001) and employee resistance (β=–0.178, p=0.003) are the two most significant negative predictors. DT leaders (top quartile on composite performance score) achieve average revenue growth of 21.6%, cost reduction of 17.2%, and EBITDA margin improvement of 5.9 percentage points over a three-year horizon — outcomes that underscore the significant performance divergence between DT leaders and laggards that compounds over successive quarters

Keywords:

digital transformation, change management, leadership, organisational performance, Indian enterprises, BFSI, Kotter framework, employee engagement, EBITDA, SME digitisation

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