Assessment of the digital maturity level of ukrainian enterprises in wartime conditions: a methodological approach and practical approbation

Abstract

The full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine has created unprecedented challenges for domestic businesses, including infrastructure destruction, supply chain disruptions, labour shortages, and constant cyber threats. Under such conditions, digitalisation has ceased to be merely a competitive advantage and has effectively become one of the key tools of business survival. At the same time, the absence of a unified methodological approach to assessing the digital maturity of enterprises in wartime significantly complicates informed managerial decision-making regarding investments in digital technologies. This article proposes an original approach to assessing the digital maturity of Ukrainian enterprises under wartime conditions - the Wartime Digital Maturity Matrix (WDMM). The proposed matrix covers five key dimensions: technological infrastructure, process automation, data management and analytics, cybersecurity and resilience, as well as digital culture and workforce capacity. Each of these dimensions is assessed using a four-level scale, ranging from initial to advanced, with a resulting integral score from 0 to 100. The theoretical foundation of the model is based on Teece’s concept of dynamic capabilities, the Resource-Based View, and leading international digital maturity frameworks, including CMMI, the BCG Digital Acceleration Index, and DREAMY. The practical approbation of the approach was carried out using the cases of three Ukrainian enterprises from different sectors of the economy: the MHP agricultural holding, the Metinvest metallurgical group, and the Nova Poshta logistics company. The results of the approbation confirmed the validity of the proposed matrix and demonstrated its practical usefulness for strategic analysis, planning investments in digitalization, and monitoring the progress of digital transformation. It was found that enterprises which systematically increased their level of digital maturity before the full-scale invasion, or during its first year, demonstrate significantly higher operational resilience. The proposed toolkit can be used by enterprises themselves for self-assessment, by consulting firms for audit purposes, and by public authorities to monitor the level of economic digitalization under crisis conditions.