ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MATURITY: A REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL MODELS Elisabete Paulo Morais ESTGM – Instituto Politécnico de Bragança Rua João Sarmento Pimentel, 5370-326, Mirandela beta@ipb.pt Ramiro Gonçalves Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro 5001-801, Vila Real ramiro@utad.pt José Adriano Pires ESTiG – Instituto Politécnico de Bragança 5301-857 Bragança adriano@ipb.pt ABSTRACT It has been more than three decades since Nolan proposed his stages of growth model for information systems. Since then several studies on the stages of growth theory appeared in the academic literature. Since models oriented to the management and planning of information systems even models oriented to the development of information systems. But the object of this article is to present the most cited maturity models for the electronic commerce or electronic business and compare them. This comparison will be made using a comparative framework to evaluate electronic business stages of growth models, illustrating perspective, development, emphasis, verification, focus, source, barriers to growth and number of stages. KEYWORDS Electronic Commerce, Electronic Business, Maturity Models, Stages of Growth. 1. INTRODUCTION Stages of growth models describe the maturing of the use of information systems in organizations. They are a useful framework to describe an organization’s current position as well as a range of possible position in the future in terms of their e-business maturity. Understanding the growing of electronic commerce / electronic business implementation process enhances the ability of organizations to plan and develop their information systems strategy. Earlier studies, which propose the major stages of growth models such Gibson and Nolan (1974), Earl (1989) and Gallier and Sutherland (1991), have been widely discussed and are particularly useful in understanding the implementation of the information systems in organizations [Chan and Swatman, 2004]. But with the advent of the Internet and the Electronic Commerce new inter- organizational relations had been created, imposing major changes within companies while offering important opportunities for growth. This article presents the most cited maturity models of electronic commerce or electronic business and compares them.