Building Digital Transformation in Higher Education with Organizational Support as the Scaffold, Teacher Readiness as the Architect

Digital transformation has become a strategic priority for higher education institutions across Sub-Saharan Africa. However, despite substantial investments, many universities remain at the stages of digitization and digitalization, with limited progress toward comprehensive digital transformation. Drawing on an integrated framework informed by Organizational Support Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Expansive Learning Theory, this study examined the direct and indirect effects of perceived organizational support (POS) on digital transformation (DT) through teacher readiness (TR), as well as the moderating role of teacher age. Using survey data from 557 university teachers across five Tanzanian universities, hypotheses were tested through hierarchical regression and moderated mediation analyses. The results indicated that POS positively predicted both TR ( b = .357, p < .001) and DT ( b = .276, p < .001). TR partially mediated the relationship between POS and DT, as the direct effect of POS on DT decreased from b = .276 to b = .164 after TR was introduced into the model. Teacher age significantly moderated the relationship between POS and TR (b = .040, p < .001), and between POS and DT ( b = .045, p < .001). The indirect effect of POS on DT through TR was also conditional upon age, as indicated by a significant index of moderated mediation ( b = .013, 95% CI [.006, .021]). These results suggest that digital transformation in higher education is not solely a technological process but also depends on organizational support and teacher readiness.