IT Application Maturity in China: How Do You Manage It?

In order to investigate the relationship between IT application maturity and management capabilities, the authors conducted a survey study to collect related company information for analysis. Data processing was conducted to obtain valid and reliable variables representing IT application maturity, management institutional capability, and process management capability. Then, they adopted a partial differential equation approach to capture the time dynamics of these variables. The equations were solved analytically, and further empirically estimated through our processed survey data. The validated model demonstrates that both management capabilities have direct enhancement effects on IT application maturity. In addition, process management capability has a greater influence on IT application maturity in comparison with management institutional capability. Furthermore, it is found that there exist local maximums for both enhancement effects, provided that the two management capabilities are well balanced. The findings not only offer practical implications, but also supplement the literature of factors for IS success in light of the dynamic relationship between IT application maturity and management capabilities.