The relationship between digital literacy and academic innovative behavior among STEM students: the mediating roles of knowledge-sharing intention and creative self-efficacy

Abstract

With the deep integration of digital technologies into higher education, digital literacy has become a key antecedent influencing college students' academic innovative behavior, yet its underlying mechanism remains insufficiently explored. Unlike previous studies that have focused primarily on a single mediating pathway, this study draws on knowledge creation theory and social cognitive theory to propose a parallel mediation model, aiming to simultaneously examine the unique roles of the “intention-based pathway,” represented by knowledge-sharing intention, and the “belief pathway,” represented by creative self-efficacy, in the effect of digital literacy on academic innovative behavior among STEM students, thereby revealing its structural transformation mechanism. Using stratified random sampling, this study selected 471 undergraduate students majoring in STEM disciplines from Xi'an University of Technology and employed structural equation modeling to analyze the data. The results showed that (1) digital literacy was significantly and positively associated with knowledge-sharing intention and creative self-efficacy; (2) both knowledge-sharing intention and creative self-efficacy were significantly and positively associated with academic innovative behavior; and (3) both mediating pathways were significant and showed similar effect sizes, jointly accounting for 57% of the total effect, while the direct effect of digital literacy remained significant, indicating a partial mediating effect. This study offers a more nuanced theoretical framework for understanding the process through which digital literacy contributes to academic innovative behavior and provides empirical evidence for a dual-pathway approach to digital literacy education and innovation-oriented talent cultivation in higher education.