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This paper aims to design an expert system that gets data from researchers and determines their maturity level. This system can be used for determining researchers’ support programs as well as a tool for researchers in research-based organizations.

This study focuses on designing the inference engine as a component of an expert system. To do so, rough set theory is used to design rule models. Various complete, discretizing and reduction algorithms are used in this paper, and different models were run.

The proposed inference engine has the validity of 99.8 per cent, and the most important attributes to determine the maturity level of researchers in this model are “commitment to research” and “attention to research plan timeline”.

To accurately determine researchers’ maturity model, solely referring to documents and self-reports may reduce the validation. More validation could be reached through using assessment centers for determining capabilities of samples and observations in each maturity level.

The assessment system for the professional maturity of researchers is an appropriate tool for funders to support researchers. This system helps the funders to rank, validate and direct researchers. Furthermore, it is a valid criterion for researchers to evaluate and improve their abilities. There is not any expert system to assess the researches in literature, and all models, frameworks and software are conceptual or self-assessment.

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that enable citizens to adopt e-government services at different maturity levels: information, two-way communication, transaction and political participation.

The study uses a grounded approach by conducting semi-structured interviews.

The study reveals that the factors influencing the adoption of e-government services vary at different levels. It identifies 27 influencing factors. In total, 13 of these factors influence adoption at the information level; 13 at the two-way communication level; 25 at the transactional level; and 16 at the political participation level. Auxiliary facilities, connectedness, corruption avoidance, transparency and fairness, customer support and forced adoption, not commonly discussed as influencing factors for e-government adoption in the extant literature, have been revealed in this study.

This study uses qualitative research and rather than generalization, the focus is explicitly on obtaining an in-depth understanding. Although the sampling used is sufficient for the purpose of this study and allows reasonable conclusions to be drawn; however, it cannot be considered representative of a vast country like India. Academicians and information systems researchers can use these findings for further research.

This study advances the understanding of e-government adoption. The findings have potential implications for public administrators and policymakers in successfully designing, developing and implementing e-government services at different maturity levels.

Existing e-government adoption theories are of limited scope and do not capture and specify the complete essence of citizens’ adoption characteristics at different levels of e-government services. Hence, a theoretical gap exists, which this study aims to fill.

The study investigated the factors influencing maturity levels in the Nigerian property market particularly southwestern Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a need to identify the factors responsible for the less notable progress in the market in order to proffer measures that will enhance the property market or attract both local and international real estate investors.

The method of data analysis adopted is weighted mean scores. The study sampled estate surveyors, public land administrators and financier, which are represented by the commercial bank. The respondents were presented a list of 40 factors and asked to rank them on a seven-point Likert scale. In order to reduce the variables responsible for the maturity levels into a few factors, factor analysis was employed.

The factors identified by respondents as the most responsible for the maturity levels observed (those with the highest weighted mean score of 6.52, 6.35 and 6.31) include government policy on interest rate, safety of property right/titles and insufficient property market information. Using factor analysis, the variables were further grouped into six factors namely monetary policy, property right registration, property professionalism, investor friendliness, property data and economic factors.

On the basis of findings, the study recommends that the government should create an enabling environment for prospective investors/or property owners by taking measures that will improve the ease of doing business at same time enhance the foreign real estate investment. The government should pass enabling legislation that will make real estate financing a feature of the capital market. The Central Bank of Nigeria can help in managing the rate of inflation in order to reduce the cost of the construction materials so that average Nigerian can be able to own property asset. Prominent real estate firms should in conjunction with The Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers develop property data bank on market fundamentals, e.g. rental/capital values, yields, construction cost indices, etc.

The paper provided the information on the factors that will enhance property maturity levels in southwestern Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review e-lending research studies in the digital library domain to identify their subjects, existing research gap and their research methods.

This is a systematic review. Through several stages of searching in related databases, 30 research works including journal and conference research papers, theses and dissertations, research and technical reports were identified and reviewed based on the guidelines of systematic review protocols.

It was found that research in e-lending domain is growing, and the subject will receive greater attention in the near future. Studies were in the following four categories: e-books (specifications, creation and software and viewpoints), business models, e-book status in libraries and copyright issues, e-book lending and inter-library loan. Some research gaps were identified including e-lending domain, business models and legislation. Little has been done with qualitative and mixed approaches in terms of research methods. Moreover, findings showed that this area has received less attention in developing countries.

This is the first review of the e-lending domain in digital libraries. It identifies the key works related to e-lending, categorizes them, provides an overview and identifies emerging research issues.

The purpose of this study is to use critical success factors (CSFs) to develop a process maturity and determine the current maturity levels of stakeholder organisations in public–private partnership (PPP) project implementation in Nigeria. The success of any PPP project is largely dependent on the country’s maturity on CSFs that made PPP projects successful. Thus, the identification of metrics and standards for measuring the maturity of stakeholder organisations on CSFs for PPP project implementation remains a challenge.

The study adopted literature review and six PPP project case studies including interviews in each case study and expert forum. The outcome of a comprehensive literature review provides a total list of 14 CSFs that made PPP projects successful in Nigeria. These CSFs were used for capability maturity levels ' definition ranging from level 1 (Ad hoc) to level 5 (Optimising) in line with capability maturity model concept. Quantitative assessment was considered as a support tool for making an overall assessment of both the public and private organisations ' current capability maturity levels and for comparison approach.

A capability enhancement framework for stakeholder organisations in PPP project was developed. This framework was used in assessing the current capability maturity levels of stakeholder organisations involved in PPP projects in Nigeria. Using this framework, it was found that public sector organisations were positioned between maturity level 1 and maturity level 2 (out of five maturity levels) on CSFs applicable to them. While, most private sector organisations were placed in maturity level 2 on CSFs associated with them.

The results emanated from this study provided both the theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical implication provides new insights into the usefulness of CSFs in PPP projects and indicates that merely identifying possible CSFs for PPP projects is not sufficient. The practical implication shows that the framework developed in this study had provided the benchmark for the identification of methodical approach, and standard to process improvement in PPP infrastructure projects, which can be replicated in both the developed and developing countries. Thus, the framework could be used to benchmark future studies.

The framework would provide a useful guide and roadmaps for improvement by indicating “what” needs to be done by stakeholder organisations involved in PPP projects in achieving higher capability maturity levels on identified CSFs for PPP projects in Nigeria and developing countries at large.

This study aims to analyze and synthesize the design features of existing digital transformation maturity models with a developed classification scheme and propose a generic maturity model development wireframe based on design science research.

A systematic literature review is conducted on digital transformation maturity models in peer-reviewed journals, including the Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Scopus, Taylor & Francis and Web of Science databases, which resulted in 21 studies. A concept-centric tabular approach is used to analyze the studies, and intersectional demonstrations are used to synthesize the findings regarding the design features.

The classification scheme derived from the tabular concept-centric approach and iteratively evolved results in three main and 25 subcategories related to the design features. Analysis and synthesis of the studies reveal the granularity of the existing digital transformation maturity models concerning the design features. Furthermore, considering the design features in the classification scheme, a generic maturity model development wireframe is proposed to guide the researchers.

The generic maturity model development wireframe and the classification scheme that represents the design features of existing maturity models guide the researchers for the maturity model development roadmap.

The existing literature review studies do not focus on the design feature of digital transformation maturity models within a systematic literature review perspective. A unique classification scheme derived from the tabular concept-centric approach aims to analyze the granularity level of the existing models. Furthermore, the generic maturity model development wireframe includes the guidelines and recommendations of design science studies and presents a roadmap for maturity model researchers.

Information systems' security is more critical than ever before since security threats are rapidly growing. Before putting in place information systems' security measures, organizations are required to determine the maturity level of their information security governance. Literature review reveals that there is no recent study on information systems' security maturity level of banks in Ethiopia. This study thus seeks to measure the existing maturity level and examine the security gaps in order to propose possible changes in Ethiopian private banking industry's information system security maturity indicators.

Four private banks are selected as a representative sample. The system security engineering capability maturity model (SSE-CMM) is used as the maturity measurement criteria, and the measurement was based on ISO/IEC 27001 information security control areas. The data for the study were gathered using a questionnaire.

A total of 93 valid questionnaires were gathered from 110 participants in the study. Based on the SSE-CMM maturity model assessment criteria the private banking industry's current maturity level is level 2 (repeatable but intuitive). Institutions have a pattern that is repeated when completing information security operations but its existence was not thoroughly proven and institutional inconsistency still exists.

This study seeks to measure the existing maturity level and examine the security gaps in order to propose possible changes in Ethiopian private banking industry's information system security maturity indicators. This topic has not been attempted previously in the context of Ethiopian financial sector.

The purpose of the study is to diagnose recurrent logistics problems in a public organization’s network of logistics entities, determining the maturity level of each supply chain (SC) function, and trying to link problems within the SC functions to the maturity level by using the case study method.

Extant research on supply chain management (SCM) maturity is combined with notions of SC flows and disciplines. The resulting SCM Disciplines Maturity model comprises multiple diagnostic steps. It is illustrated by means of a developmental case study at a large public organization facing recurrent logistics problems in routine processes.

The model is shown to be a useful instrument to obtain insight into linkages between recurrent logistics problems and the way an SCM organization harbors multiple SCM disciplines.

The paper examines recurrent logistics problems in relation to SCM maturity, a relatively unknown research subject. It shows how SCM maturity thinking can support the diagnosis of recurrent problems. In a rapidly changing world, it enables further research on diagnosis as a dynamic capability.

The continuous improvement in the performance and satisfaction of all stakeholders is a permanent management objective and part of an organisation’s strategy. To achieve this goal, organisations invest in technological upgrades, process improvements and management models that assure efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to verify the possibility of measuring the management maturity level of an organisation that is dedicated to passenger public transportation; this organisation is used as a reference framework for the self-evaluation maturity-level measurement tool provided by the ISO 9004:2009 standard.

The objective of this paper was accomplished through a case study in which the selected measurement instrument was applied to the management system of the maintenance area of one of the largest subway companies in Brazil.

The results of the study showed that the referential method was capable of precisely and adequately measuring the maturity level of the appraised management system. The method also enabled the researchers to identify best practices for the study organisation, which can be employed by the administration to develop action plans to improve their management system.

As a limitation, the results obtained by this paper cannot be generalised, because they were based on only one company. As a result, the conclusions established cannot be extended to other types of companies since their competitive priorities and management practices may be different and generate characteristics of maturity that were not considered in this work. However, these limitations can be minimised if additional researches ponder other types of organisations.

On the practical side, this paper motivates companies to improve their operations management by using the self-evaluation tool to identify gaps in their management systems and consequently plan actions to achieve the related improvements.

The ISO 9004:2009 standard provides a self-evaluation instrument that can support companies on measuring their respective management system maturity level. However, this paper was able to demonstrate that the aforesaid tool can be used in a broader way as it allows management to define action plans to boost their management systems towards a full utilisation of best management practices.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel maturity model for health-care cloud security (M²HCS), which focuses on assessing cyber security in cloud-based health-care environments by incorporating the sub-domains of health-care cyber security practices and introducing health-care-specific cyber security metrics. This study aims to expand the domain of health-care cyber security maturity model by including cloud-specific aspects than is usually seen in the literature.

The intended use of the proposed model was demonstrated using the evaluation method – “construct validity test” as the paper’s aim was to assess the final model and the output of the valuation. The study involved a literature-based case study of a national health-care foundation trust with an overall view because the model is assessed for the entire organisation. The data were complemented by examination of hospitals’ cyber security internal processes through web-accessible documents, and identified relevant literature.

The paper provides awareness about how organisational-related challenges have been identified as a main inhibiting factor for the adoption of cloud computing in health care. Regardless of the remunerations of cloud computing, its security maturity and levels of adoption varies, especially in health care. Maturity models provide a structure towards improving an organisation’s capabilities. It suggests that although several cyber security maturity models and standards resolving specific threats exist, there is a lack of maturity models for cloud-based health-care security.

Due to the selected research method, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, future research studies can investigate the propositions further. Another is that the current thresholds were determined empirically, although it worked for the case study assessment. However, to establish more realistic threshold levels, there is a need for more validation of the model using more case studies.

The paper includes maturity model for the assessment management and improvement of the security posture of a health-care organisation actively using cloud. For executives, it provides a detailed security assessment of the eHealth cloud to aid in decision making. For security experts, its quantitative metrics support proactive and reactive processes.

The paper fulfils a recognised requirement for security maturity model focussed on health-care cloud. It could be extended to resolve evolving cyber settings.