Bridging the Gap Between Digital Maturity and Competitive Advantage: Are Digital Maturity Models Enough?

Amidst nowadays digital-driven environment, achieving digital maturity has become the focal point of contemporary organisations more than ever before. Therefore, Digital Maturity Models (DMMs) have been subject to various studies. These instruments are means meant to assess the state of an organisation’s Digital Transformation (DT). Although (1) higher digital maturity is frequently related to significant competitive advantage and (2) despite the fact that DMMs being the main instrument used to describe it, the role of DMMs in putting across the complex interplay between (1) and (2) seems to be underexplored. Thus, this study aims to shed light on this gap via the examination of the structure and efficacy of DMMs with a special emphasis on how these models help in gaining knowledge and insights pertaining to competitive advantage. Findings suggest that DMMs do constitute an invaluable basis for digital transformation and progression towards digital maturity; nevertheless, they fall short in providing organisations with actionable plans to better leverage their capabilities so as to gain a market edge. To bridge this gap, the authors offer an initial practice-oriented framework that stresses the role of digital maturity practices in converting digital capabilities into competitive differentiators.