Human Capital Strategies for Competitive Advantage in Digital Transformation: A Socio-Technical Modification of the Resource-Based View

Abstract

Organizational success in digital transformation is increasingly recognized as a human capital imperative, rather than merely a technological challenge (Agustian et al., 2023; Barišić et al., 2021). Addressing this theoretical gap is important to reduce continuous learning fatigue and bridge the digital divide between strategic vision and front-line execution (Mohohoma & Aaron, 2024; Vial, 2019). Following the PRISMA 2020 protocol, this study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method to synthesize multidisciplinary research (Vial, 2019; Kane et al., 2019). The analysis is based on an initial corpus of 33 international peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025, obtained from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (Hess et al., 2016; Nadkarni & Prügl, 2021). Data extraction focused on reconciling ontological contradictions regarding digital literacy and labor demand through a socio-technical lens (Cetindamar et al., 2021; Obermayer et al., 2022; World Economic Forum, 2020). The synthesis shows that organizational Collective Intelligence increases when AI is integrated as a collaborative agent in work design, actualizing organizational affordances that individual cognitive stocks alone cannot achieve (Cetindamar et al., 2021; Kane et al., 2019). Evidence consistently shows that workforce resilience is sustained through contextual hybrid learning pathways that align skill endowments with the quality of ICT investment (Mohohoma & Aaron, 2024; Morandini et al., 2023). The central finding is the conceptualization of "Digital Human Capital Affordance" (DHCA) as a relational construct that mediates performance variance in human-AI symbiosis (Cetindamar et al., 2021; Kane et al., 2019). These findings call for a modification of the AMO Model to incorporate socio-technical mediation as a core mechanism of competitive advantage (Barišić et al., 2021; Teece et al., 1997). The proposed framework is strongly supported in sectors with high digital maturity such as finance, yet institutional inertia and low IT infrastructure are significant boundary conditions in transitional economies (Mohohoma & Aaron, 2024; Obermayer et al., 2022)