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Introduction
Nowadays, competition between organizations is a reality in all economic areas. This competition does not occur only between companies but also between supply chains (Christopher, 2005; Lambert and Cooper, 2000). More specifically, in recent years, the purchasing volume (percentage of an organization’s total turnover) has grown substantially. Under these circumstances, a better performance by the procurement function may make a considerable contribution to the overall performance of a firm (Schiele, 2007). According to Weele (2005), most of the cost of goods is raw materials, components and services acquired. Procurement and supply efficiency can therefore lead to substantial competitive advantage (Langley and Coyle, 2012). However, how can an organization improve the performance of its procurement and supply processes?
One of the aspects is its maturity level, which affects a company’s performance (Batenburg and Versendaal, 2008). According to Becker et al. (2009):
[…] a maturity model consists of a sequence of maturity levels for a class of objects. It represents a typical evolution path of these objects in the form of discrete stages. Typically, these objects are organizations or processes.
Having expanded strongly in the past two decades, the concept of maturity management arose from the concept of quality management. Based on the principles of quality, the first to propose a maturity framework was Crosby (1979), in his book Quality Is Free. The maturity grid of quality management (Crosby, 1979) describes five evolutionary stages of adopting practices of quality: uncertainty, awakening, enlightenment, wisdom and certainty. To evaluate the maturity of the company as a whole, different aspects, or dimensions, evaluate these stages of maturity. These aspects are understanding and attitude of management, organization status, handling of problems, cost of quality, improvement actions and characteristics report. Based on Crosby’s model, the Software Engineering Institute developed a model of five levels, known as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), for software development (Paulk et al., 1993). This model guides the improvement of the software-development process through optimum management practices. Nevertheless, although it is widely applied, the model has several limitations, particularly for small companies.
Brodman and Johnson (1994, p. 335), interviewing 190 software companies, found that the major concerns and difficulties for small companies in implementing CMM models are:
[…] the cost of implementing specific aspects of...