A Configurational Approach to Maturity Model Development – Using fsQCA to Build a Multiple-Pathway Maturity Model

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Maturity models can be used as tools which depict the developmental trajectories of entity classes in domains and evaluate the relative position of an entity within this framework. However, their development process has been the focus of researchers and practitioners ever since, resulting in different procedures, development approaches, and conceptual models. Thus, a major criticism of maturity models is the often missing conceptual and theoretical grounding when it comes to the interpretation of the concept of maturity. To address this shortcoming, our research approach focuses on the rigorous development of a multiple-pathway maturity model. By following a sequential, theoretically grounded process, the resulting maturity model can be viewed as an instantiation of the predefined conceptual components and characteristics in a predefined domain. We present and discuss the instantiated sector and size-specific maturity model for innovation capability in small industrial firms, which is developed by applying configurational methods on a dataset and thereby offers multiple pathways to maturity. This concept of equifinality is central to our approach. It has rarely been considered in maturity model development research, although it offers the potential to build more realistic models with greater applicability, especially in domains with many interdependencies.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)75-132
Number of pages58
JournalCommunications of the Association for Information Systems
Volume54
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 28 Feb 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85184142425
ORCID /0000-0001-8365-8905/work/154741672
ORCID /0000-0002-9465-9679/work/154741831
Mendeley 2993004b-c6ae-311a-a9d0-a9af88c293bb

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Configurational Set Theory, Equifinality, Innovation Capability, Maturity Models, NCA, fsQCA