MTISV™

A diagnostic meta-framework

The Maturation Tree of Inclusive Shared Value™

A single, transferable way to diagnose how any developmental system generates, captures, retains and reinvests value as it matures.

Originated by Viateur Nkurunziza · developed during doctoral research at RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, Riga

Explore the framework Licensing & use

The idea in brief

One framework for how value grows

MTISV is a diagnostic framework for developmental systems — economies, organisations, institutions, value chains, programmes and ecosystems.

What it asks

Of any system: how does it generate value, how does it capture and retain that value, how does it reinvest it — and at what stage of maturity does it stand? Grounded empirically in the Rwandan coffee sector.

Why it travels

MTISV is a meta-framework: it sits one level above a field's own tools, connecting and extending them rather than replacing them. Its reach is set by the nature of the object of study, not by the disciplinary label.

The architecture

Four pillars, one diagnostic apparatus

Four theoretical pillars supply the assumptions; a diagnostic apparatus puts them to work — six developmental functions, assessed for maturity and traced along the prosperity pathway.

The MTISV framework: four theoretical pillars operationalised as a diagnostic apparatus — six developmental functions assessed across five maturity dimensions at four levels, read through four diagnostic layers, tracing the prosperity pathway, and run as a six-stage cycle.
The MTISV framework at a glance — foundations and diagnostic apparatus.

THEORETICAL PILLARS

P1

Inclusive shared value

Value must be generated and retained inclusively.

P2

Contingency theory

The right structure depends on the context.

P3

Paradox management

Enduring tensions are held, not removed.

P4

Systems thinking

Attend to the whole — feedback and interdependence.

SIX DEVELOPMENTAL FUNCTIONS — the roles a system must perform

Capability Development

Knowledge, skills and competencies to recognise, reach and use opportunities.

Governance Support

Collective action, coordinated decisions, accountability, constructive conflict.

Resource Mobilisation

Finance, inputs, technology, infrastructure, labour, institutional support.

Information Circulation

Generating, sharing and using information to see opportunities, coordinate and learn.

Market Facilitation

Connecting productive capacity to opportunity — access, buyers, certification, quality.

Collective Coordination

Collaborative action and pooled resources to reach what individuals cannot alone.

Assessed for maturity

Each function is read across five dimensions — availability, reliability, adaptability, integration, sustainability — at four levels:

Deficient Unripe Partially ripe Ripe

Read through four layers

Observation → Functional → Systemic → Contextual — moving from surface to cause, so an outcome is never explained by itself.

The prosperity pathway

How value develops

Creation→Capture→Retention→Reinvestment

THE SIX-STAGE DIAGNOSTIC CYCLE — closing the maturation loop

1 Mapping→ 2 Function Analysis→ 3 Maturity Assessment→ 4 Localisation→ 5 Prioritisation→ 6 Enablement
The MTISV maturation tree applied to the Rwandan coffee sector: each concept shown as a fruit coloured by its stage of ripeness.
The MTISV maturation tree, applied to the Rwandan coffee sector. Each concept is a fruit whose colour marks how developed it is — unripe, partially ripe, ripe, or defective.

How far it reaches

Scope & transferability

MTISV applies wherever an object of study has agents, a flow of value, and a developmental trajectory — from native application in economics and management, through the system layer of medicine, agriculture, engineering and strategy, to a light integrative lens almost anywhere.

Depth 1

Lens

An integrative overlay on existing content — available almost everywhere.

Depth 2

Restructuring

Reorganise a module, curriculum or research design around the framework.

Depth 3

Spine

The organising architecture of a whole programme.

A companion guide assesses the framework across fourteen domains, with a six-feature test and a decision path for placing any field. Request the Scope & Transferability guide →

Books & publications

Works

The framework, its applications, and the wider body of scholarly work from which it grows.

Book

The MTISV Handbook

Developmental Diagnostics, Maturity Analysis and Structural Transformation. The complete framework, its instruments, and the Rwandan coffee application.

The framework in full
Guide

Scope & Transferability of the MTISV Framework

A companion guide mapping the framework across fourteen domains, with figures, a self-assessment path and an adaptation protocol.

Fourteen domains
Book

The Economy of Silence

Producer-Centred Development and the Architecture of Structural Transformation. A monograph arguing that development should be judged by what it demonstrably does, not by what it declares. Ranging across the philosophy of language, economics and global-trade analysis, it turns a critique of development discourse into two working instruments — MTISV and PSV — grounded in Rwanda's coffee sector.

Monograph
Framework

Productive Shared Value (PSV)

A producer-centred framework for structural transformation in developing economies. PSV reconceives shared value as a structural outcome of productive upgrading, value-chain repositioning and domestic value capture — shifting the focus from consumption to production, and from firm performance to producer prosperity. It is the macro-structural companion to MTISV: where MTISV diagnoses sectors and value chains, PSV specifies the national conditions — value retention, leakage, capital flight — under which those systems can mature.

Producer-centred development
Philosophy

Philosophical foundations

The frameworks rest on the philosophy of language and the Vienna Circle tradition: Wittgenstein's distinction between what can be said and what can only be shown — declared versus demonstrated development — together with an anti-reductionist, unity-of-science spirit that coordinates fields without collapsing one into another.

Language & development
Article

The founding article

“The Maturation Tree of Inclusive Shared Value”, the canonical published statement of the framework, grounded in the Rwandan coffee sector.

Social Responsibility Journal

Put it to work

Materials & tools

Practical resources for applying MTISV in research, teaching and practice. In development — register your interest for early access.

In development

Practitioner toolkit

Editable templates for each stage — function inventory, maturity profile, bottleneck (localisation) map, and transformation plan.

In development

Self-assessment

The six-feature test as a short questionnaire that places any system on the tier scale.

In development

Teaching pack

Module handbooks, lecturer scripts and teaching cases for university use.

Request early access

Recognition & practice

Certification — in development

A tiered credential is planned, so that others can teach and apply MTISV to a recognised standard.

Level 1

Foundation

Understand the framework and apply the six-feature criterion.

Level 2

Practitioner

Run a full diagnosis on a real developmental system.

Level 3

Lead Diagnostician

Lead engagements and adapt MTISV to new domains.

Track

Trainers & partners

Accredited trainers and institutional partners deliver the programme.

Copyright, trademark & use

Licensing

The framework is open to learn from and cite; the published materials and the name are protected.

Free, with attribution

The MTISV framework and its concepts may be freely used, taught, discussed and built upon for academic and other non-commercial purposes, with attribution.

Commercial licence

Consulting, paid training or certification, proprietary products, and redistribution of the materials for profit require a written licence from the author.

Attribution

Credit the source: “Based on the Maturation Tree of Inclusive Shared Value (MTISV™), originated by Viateur Nkurunziza.”

MTISV™ and “Maturation Tree of Inclusive Shared Value”™ are trademarks of Viateur Nkurunziza. © 2026 Viateur Nkurunziza. All rights reserved in the text, figures, tables and templates of the published works.

How to cite

Nkurunziza, Viateur. 2026. “The Maturation Tree of Inclusive Shared Value.” Social Responsibility Journal.

Get in touch

Contact & licensing enquiries

For collaboration, licensing, teaching partnerships, or to request the guide and materials.

Email the author

Viateur Nkurunziza · Originator of MTISV · developed during doctoral research at RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, Riga