A Critical Review of the Development of Technology Maturity Research and State-of-the-art Approaches

Measuring a technology's maturity is a topic that has been present in academic research for more than three decades, but regarding sustainability, it is more current than ever before. In order to reach the 1.5° goal, there is no room for mistimed investments into promising technologies. Therefore, reliable measuring instruments are needed to accurately model a technology's maturity and its expected development. But which fact-based approaches within the scope of technology maturity should be used to guide managerial decisions? This paper revisits the historical development of qualitative and quantitative approaches to measuring technology maturity. By conducting a content analysis of more than 500 research documents from 2015-2022, the paper outlines the most recent developments of the research area. Moreover, it critically examines practically established expert-based and bibliometrical approaches and uncovers the shortcomings and research gaps that have not been resolved by either side. Theoretical implications are provided by outlining possible extensions for quantitative approaches regarding expert-validated search strings, the use of additional data sources, indicators beyond the number of publications and future predictions of maturity values. Managerial implications resulting from incorporating these suggestions into further research instruments include improved decision quality regarding the development of and investment in promising sustainable technologies.