Systematic review of methodological approaches for designing, assessing and validating business analytics maturity models

Context: Applying maturity models to measure and evaluate Business Analytics (BA) in organisations is challenging. There is a lack of empirical studies on how BA maturity models are designed, assessed and validated to determine how BA contributes to business value. Objective: To report on state of research on BA maturity models (BAMMs) and identify how BAMMs can be empirically (1) designed, (2) assessed and (3) validated. Method: Systematic review of BA maturity model studies focuses on methodological approaches used in design, assessment and validation of BA maturity models. Results: (1) A systematic review resulted in nine papers included for analysis. (2) Within these papers the dominant methodological design approaches for maturity models are Rasch analysis and set theory; (3) assessment approaches are Cluster, Additive Logic, Minimum Constraints using Statistical Squared Distance and Euclidian Distance; and (4) validation approaches are variance techniques using regression, correlation coefficients with tests for statistical significance against self-reported maturity, perceived benefits or performance. Conclusion: This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how BAMMs can be designed, assessed and validated in a rigorous manner. Future research should involve more empirical studies that demonstrate the validity and usefulness of BAMMs in contributing to business value.