Factors Influencing Digital Maturity Progression In Emerging Markets

The topic of digital maturity has gained significant attention in both academic and practitioners’ discourses. Despite this growing attention yet few studies explore the factors that influence digital maturity progression within an emerging setting and identify its contextual nuances. Accordingly, this exploratory qualitative research aims to contribute to the academic discussion about digital maturity in emerging contexts and explore the influencing factors of digital maturity progression with a particular focus on the Algerian market as a case study. Through semi-structured interviews with digital experts, this study identifies several internal and external factors that contribute to the digital evolution of companies. The findings indicate that internally achieving digital maturity is highly dependent to digital leadership, financial resources and digital skills availability, which in emerging economies is critically constrained by brain drain that limits the talent pool necessary for digital advancement. Externally, the study identifies factors such as governmental support and competitive pressure. The study also reveals that customers’ digital readiness and digital ecosystem readiness as distinctive characteristics of the emerging context critically influence maturity advancement of the companies.