AI–Blockchain Cybersecurity Integration and Organizational Cyber Resilience: The Mediating Role of Decentralized Threat Intelligence and the Conditional Role of Governance Maturity

Abstract

The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain has created new possibilities for organizational cybersecurity by combining advanced analytical capabilities with distributed trust, data integrity, and provenance. However, technology integration alone may not be sufficient for organizational cyber resilience unless accompanied by appropriate information-processing capabilities, and limited empirical research has examined the organizational mechanisms through which such integration may generate resilience outcomes. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory and organizational information processing theory, this study examines whether AI–blockchain cybersecurity integration capability is associated with organizational cyber resilience through decentralized cyber threat intelligence (DCTI) capability and whether blockchain cybersecurity governance maturity conditions this indirect relationship. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey of IT and security professionals with organizational exposure to either AI and blockchain technologies or applications relevant to cybersecurity, with one knowledgeable respondent retained from each of 312 organizations across multiple industries in Pakistan. Using confirmatory factor analysis and conditional process analysis (PROCESS Model 7), AI–blockchain cybersecurity integration capability is positively associated with organizational cyber resilience (total association, c = 0.44, SE = 0.05, p < 0.001). Part of the association is statistically mediated by DCTI capability (indirect effect = 0.19, 95% CI [0.13, 0.27]), suggesting that the organisational value of technological integration is partially realised through the ability to acquire, validate, analyse, and disseminate threat intelligence across distributed participants. However, unexpectedly, the moderation effect of blockchain security governance maturity on the relationship between AI-blockchain integration and DCTI capability is not significant (interaction = 0.06, p = 0.231). The index of moderated mediation is not statistically significant (index = 0.02, 95% CI [-0.01, 0.06]) indicating that the indirect effect between integration capability and cyber resilience does not significantly depend on the governance maturity of the sampled organisations. The results indicate that the AI–blockchain integration should be regarded as a capability where the organisational value is related to effective information processing mechanisms, but the maturity of governance did not significantly moderate the relationship between integration and DCTI in the sampled organisations. This research contributes to cybersecurity and information systems research by linking technological integration, decentralised intelligence, governance and organisational resilience in a conditional process framework and by highlighting the boundary conditions of governance effects.