Digital transformation maturity model: Robustly and rigorously validated maturity model development framework and a case study

The rapid advancement of technology throughout the Industry 4.0 era and the rapid adaptation of digital products and services to daily life dramatically change the business processes. Aggressive developments in technology create a competitive market. For this reason, companies should understand the digitalization concept and dynamics and continuously improve and measure their digital capabilities. Therefore, these companies require maturity models that assist to evaluate and get informed about the current status and enable to position themselves during the change process by providing guidelines for better status in the future. This thesis aims to develop a valid and reliable digital transformation maturity model based on design science theory. For this purpose, the maturity model development framework that includes three phases coherent to the design science research is created. The digital transformation maturity model is built upon this framework which ensures the efficiency and utility of the design artifact. The developed maturity model constitutes four main components: 1) The domain that circumscribes the digital transformation including six main dimensions, ten sub-dimensions, and 39 capability items, 2) A novel spiral-shaped maturity level identification, 3) The measurement instrument that enables to self-assess and is prescriptive in nature with incrementally increasing questions consisting of 273 statements, 4) The measurement method that quantifies and represents a company's maturity index. Iterative in-depth expert discussion sessions are conducted, and the evolution of the maturity model is controlled by Wilcoxon signed-rank test and intra-class correlation methods during the model development. Furthermore, DEMATEL based ANP (D-ANP) method is utilized to disclose the inter-relations and priority weights of the maturity model dimensions to help companies to prioritize improvement actions and investment strategies. Finally, prototype testing with a pilot study and a case study is carried out to prove the applicability of the maturity model. Current status analysis and prioritized synthesis of the company's maturity index are revealed.