The Impact of Perceived School Support on Digital Teaching Behavior: The Mediating Role of Digital Teaching Efficacy and Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange theory (SET), this study examined how perceived school support (PSS) enhances university teachers’ digital teaching behavior (DTB) through the serial mediation of digital teaching efficacy (DTE) and knowledge sharing (KS). A survey of 655 university teachers across 11 provinces in China revealed that PSS significantly enhances DTB (direct effect = 0.253, p < 0.001). Both DTE and KS mediated the relationship between PSS and DTB, with effect sizes of 0.162 (p < 0.001) and 0.057 (p < 0.001), respectively. Additionally, DTE and KS demonstrated as a serial mediation pathway, with an effect size of 0.043 (p < 0.001). As the first study to validate the sequential DTE→KS pathway in the PSS-DTB nexus, this research extends beyond prior single-mediator models by revealing how school support cascades through efficacy beliefs to collaborative exchanges. These findings demonstrate that institutional support directly and indirectly drive digital teaching through efficacy-building and knowledge-sharing mechanisms. Theoretically, this offers a novel framework for interpreting technology adoption in academia; practically, it provides actionable strategies for administrators while highlighting cross-cultural validation and intervention efficacy as critical future research priorities.