2.1. Innovative capability

The innovative capability is the entire ability of a company to change, adapt and implement ideas and knowledge (processes, systems, products, services, and many others) into something new and carried out continuously for the company’s strategic interests through innovative behaviour and processes (Hurley & Hult,  Citation1998 ; Lawson & Samson,  Citation2001 ; Wang & Ahmed,  Citation2004 ; Shou et al., 2016; Yang,  Citation2012 ). This innovative capability influences the success and sustainability of the company (Cardozo et al.,  Citation1993 ; Lai et al.,  Citation2015 ).

Trucking companies are an important part of the supply chain. Factors that influence the innovative capability in the supply chain in previous research, among others, are competence, flexibility, responsiveness (Ferrer et al.,  Citation2011 ), collaboration (Swink,  Citation2006 ), network contribution (Delbufalo,  Citation2015 ), and big data (Tan et al.,  Citation2015 ). Innovative capability in the logistics sector positively impacts performance (Grawe et al.,  Citation2011 ; Ho & Chang,  Citation2015 ; Kafetzopoulos & Psomas,  Citation2015 ). ideally, logistics companies focus more on providing better services to customers (Wang et al.,  Citation2020 ). Just-in-time systems result from the logistics sector’s innovative capability, saving on warehouse space and reducing overall costs (Wei et al.,  Citation2018 ). As part of the supply chain and logistics, trucking companies must also develop their innovative capabilities to improve their performance. In this research, the innovative capability of trucking companies consists of technological capabilities, market orientation and supplier relationship. The components will be discussed in the following sub-sections.

2.2. Innovative capability components

2.3. Capability maturity model (CMM)

The concept of process maturity in the context of this research is the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The term maturity can be interpreted as being ready, complete, and perfect to perform a task. Therefore, the capability maturity model can be defined as an activity that uses various tools and practices to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the company’s ability to grow and develop through an evolutionary path from immature organisational processes to become mature, efficient, and effective (Wibowo & Waluyo,  Citation2015 ). The model determines the company’s current state from experience, resources used, operational methods, goals and priorities, and ways to achieve company goals (diagnoses; Tubis & Werbińska-Wojciechowska,  Citation2021 ). Furthermore, these results are used for decision making in finding ways to improve the main factors that contribute to increasing the company’s competence (planning).

The concept of process maturity initially used an improvement cycle (Plan—Do—Check—Act). This concept came to the attention of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), which Carnegie Mellon University further developed in the United States in 1995. Initially, this concept was used as a software process control for continuous process improvement (Facchini et al.,  Citation2020 ; Mendes et al.,  Citation2016 ). Various organisations have used this concept, such as governments, businesses, and other organisations. This concept is also commonly used in application areas such as project management, risk management, supply chain management (Fischer et al.,  Citation2016 ), and many others.

The maturity model concept dates back to the 1980s by Watts Humphrey at IBM (Y. C. Y. C. Chen & Wang,  Citation2018 ). This concept assumes that a process of growth and development depends on regulation, management, performance measurement, and control. Maturity of the process occurs through the institutionalisation of policies, standards and organisational structures. Adopting this model will mature practice, starting from inconsistent and not clearly defined practices, then becoming a continuously improved practice so that business processes become comprehensive and clearly defined to optimise innovation (Tubis & Werbińska-Wojciechowska,  Citation2021 ). The advantage of a mature process is reducing time for a shorter development cycle (Lockamy & Mccormack,  Citation2004 ).

The main purpose of this model is to assess the achievement of results against the target maturity process. Of course, when the company’s processes are more mature, they will be better prepared to face challenges and carry out business innovations (Rudnicka,  Citation2017 ). The model is a tool or roadmap to compare, describe, measure, and determine steps (Proença & Borbinha,  Citation2016 ). The maturity model is used to assess the company’s state according to the state described by the model as a starting point for improving the company’s processes. The maturity model can be compared with other companies (Röglinger et al.,  Citation2012 ; Zhang et al.,  Citation2017 ).

This capability maturity model is used to increase its knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve its goals (Bill Curtis et al.,  Citation1995 ). It relates to the ability to carry out important company activities so that investments will generate benefits for the company. This ability is unique and comprehensive, accumulated from experience, process, learning, skills, and knowledge (Wademan et al.,  Citation2008 ). The advantages of the capability maturity model have been confirmed by many studies (Appleby & Mavin,  Citation2000 ; Delaney & Huselid,  Citation1996 ; Huselid,  Citation1995 ). These advantages include, among others, the capabilities required by the job to be more recognisable, the application of a system that is more targeted and easy to understand, consistent repetition of activities, continuous improvement to obtain the best work practices (Y. C. Y. C. Chen & Wang,  Citation2018 ). Doing so requires an understanding of the organisation as a whole and the direction of the company’s goals in the future (Brookes & Clark,  Citation2009 ).

The capability maturity model combines best practices as a reference for assessing the maturity of processes within the organisation, ranging from unmeasured and structured processes to mature processes (Herbsleb et al.,  Citation1997 ). This model provides a systematic framework for benchmarking and improving performance. Two areas of application of this model are, among others, a model for assessing the maturity level of company capabilities and project management maturity (Demir & Kocabaş,  Citation2010 ). This model can help organisations save, improve quality and encourage efficient behaviour to reduce risk amid intense business competition (Antunes et al.,  Citation2014 ). The capability maturity model is a measurement model to evaluate organisational capability (Lahrmann et al.,  Citation2011 ).

The capability maturity model emphasises incremental improvement rather than radical innovation. According to Fraser et al. ( Citation2002 ), there are three characteristics of the firm’s capability maturity model.

• The model generally has three to six maturity levels.

• Several processes with criteria or activities must be carried out at each maturity level.

• Each activity is described for each stage of maturity. This step is divided into three to six levels for continuous process improvement.

This level is intended to measure and evaluate the company’s capabilities or processes (Paulk et al.,  Citation1993 ). This process helps the company continuously improve so that mature processes and capabilities are obtained. Each level has different challenges to gradually increase the company’s capabilities and make the company’s processes and capabilities grow and develop mature.

There are three types of maturity models (Mendes et al.,  Citation2016 ). First is the maturity grid, complete with descriptions for each maturity level. The second is a type of questionnaire. This level of maturity can be measured through a five-point Likert scale (De Bruin et al.,  Citation2005 ). The questions in this section are about ranking best practices within a given maturity level. Third, a complex maturity model contains goals and practices that are general to specific for each process and each stage of maturity level.

This maturity level is a gradual evolutionary process that symbolises the company’s maturation path. The company will be evaluated based on the current maturity level and carry out a series of processes for improvement to enter a higher maturity stage (Pöppelbuß & Röglinger,  Citation2011 ). When the level of maturity associated with specific activities increases, the company will operate more efficiently (Becker et al.,  Citation2010 ). An important characteristic of the capability maturity model is that it is gradual and continuous, during which the company can decide which approach to take. The continuous approach allows the company to choose the specific process it wants to improve, while the phased approach allows for implementing a series of processes using a proven path to improve the company compared to other companies (Antunes et al.,  Citation2014 ).

The ability maturity model in this study uses five maturity levels as follows (Y. C. Chen & Wang,  Citation2018 ; Facchini et al.,  Citation2020 ; Herbsleb et al.,  Citation1997 ; Paulk et al.,  Citation1993 ; Vakaslahti,  Citation1997 ):

1. Initial: At this time, the ability is still not well regulated, inconsistent, and sometimes not in sync with other activities, even developed inappropriately. Success depends on the efforts and performance of individuals who encourage and are motivated to perform a task. The company also does not understand the importance of building capacity, so that it has not supported the development of this activity.

2. Repetition: The success of the capabilities in the first phase becomes the impetus for repeating the process that has proven successful for other problems with similar applications. This process can be implemented, documented, managed, trained, measured, and improved. The costs, completion time, required functions and performance in the previous stage become the reference for this stage. Process discipline is a prerequisite for successful reproduction.

3. Defined: The process is organised, documented, standardised, integrated into the organisational capability process comprehensively. All company activities use versions that have been approved and adopted into company standards for the maintenance and development of enterprise capabilities. This defined process helps the company to work more effectively, and each component understands the roles and responsibilities in the defined process. The training program is implemented to ensure employees have sufficient skills and knowledge. It is aimed at creating stability and consistency of successful and controlled repetition.

4. Managed: At this stage, the company determines the quality objectives for the results and processes. Productivity and quality are aspects that are measured consistently and well defined. It is intended for process evaluation. Performance is expected to fall within the standard tolerance limits that have been determined with minimal variations. When this limit is exceeded, actions are taken to improve the situation so that consistency and performance can be predicted properly. Detailed and detailed steps are collected and analysed in every company process. Understanding and control are further developed by developing and improving the company’s human resource capabilities.

5. Process Optimisation: Continuous improvement of processes and methods and feedback from measurement and use of innovative ideas and technologies. It is aimed at identifying weaknesses and building the company’s competencies proactively. The company’s capabilities continue to be gradually improved in existing processes by using new technologies and methods.

Table 1 further describes the levels of the capability maturity model for each factor, the focus areas of concern and the focus of attention for each maturity level. Three factors contribute to the innovative capability of trucking companies, market orientation (customer and competitor orientation), technological capability and supplier relationship. Each of them consists of five levels of maturity. The Initial (first) level consist of one indicator, repetition (second) level consist of six indicators, defined (third) level consists of five indicators, managed (fourth) level consist of six indicators, and (fifth) process optimisation level consists of four indicators.

3. Methodology

The study conducted an empirical analysis using quantitative research methods to assess the maturity model level in this study. Figure 1 illustrates the maturity model for innovative capability used in this research. Firstly the market orientation maturity model is obtained from the customer and competitor orientation. Next, the innovative capability maturity model is obtained from the market orientation, technology capability, and supplier relationship maturity model. Data is then collected through a survey distributed to respondents from truck-owning companies. The survey uses online questionnaires to collect data, which will be analysed further. The details of each step are described in the following subsections.