Linking Digital Transformation Initiatives to Organisational Excellence through Customer Satisfaction: A Conceptual Framework in the Sri Lankan Telecom Sector

The telecommunications industry plays a vital role in Sri Lanka's national development, yet it faces challenges, including customer dissatisfaction, outdated infrastructure, and high churn rates. Although digital transformation initiatives have been recognised as strategic enablers in developed economies, research examining their role in organisational excellence and the mediating influence of customer satisfaction remains limited in Asian contexts, particularly Sri Lanka. This study develops a framework linking digital transformation initiatives to organisational excellence, via customer satisfaction in the Sri Lankan telecom sector. A qualitative, exploratory approach is adopted, synthesising evidence from scholarly literature, case studies, and industry reports published between 2017 and 2025. The synthesis integrates digital transformation initiatives, operational efficiency, competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, and organisational excellence into a unified framework. The proposed framework provides theoretical and practical insights for understanding these relationships in the Sri Lankan telecom context and establishes a foundation for future empirical validation using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).