Boosting resilience of maritime logistics operators: the importance of digitalization, leadership, and employee self-efficacy

The resilience of maritime logistics is critical for maintaining global trade and supply chain continuity, especially during disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While most resilience strategies focus on securing backup infrastructure, facilities, and assets within maritime logistics networks, often involving significant expenditures, the inherent resilience of leaders and employees and its enhancement through digitalization has been frequently neglected. This study proposes a model integrating psychological capital theory and organizational information processing theory to examine the relationships among digitalization (DI), resilient leadership (RL), employee self-efficacy (SE), and organizational resilience (OR). A postal questionnaire survey within Taiwan’s maritime logistics sector yielded 159 valid responses. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to validate the model, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to test the six hypotheses. The results show that digitalization significantly strengthens organizational resilience by improving information processing capacities and increasing the leaders’ psychological capital and employees’ self-efficacy. Digitalization plays a vital role by increasing the speed and accuracy of information processing, enabling more informed decision-making and better responses to disruptions. The study suggests that maritime logistics operators should invest in digitalization while cultivating resilient leadership and promoting employee self-efficacy to improve organizational resilience.