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1. Introduction
Considering a fast growing business environment across several borders and continents being forced by changing customer behaviours and requirements on the one hand and increasing competitive pressure on the other hand organisations are part of “Hybrid supply chain networks” as mentioned by Porter and Heppelmann (2014) which are getting more and more determined by “Internet-of-Things”, “Big Data”, and “Artificial Intelligence”. In recent times organisations are faced with a radical change because the global interconnectivity and exchange of data and information in real-time enable organisations to create new business models and concepts within their area of operation on the one hand, and on the other hand, an increasing competition, also deriving from new market entries, force organisations to increase their potential of innovation to maintain competitiveness within the new created business models and concepts (Downes and Nunes, 2014). The disruptive and fast changing business discipline “digitisation” is on the top management-level agenda of organisations, research institutes, politics, as well as non-profit organisations. Within the future possibilities of information technologies and electronics in the 1970s (Industry 3.0) the industrial revolution is continuing with a fast pace and the actual evolution of “Industry 4.0” is still in progress. Due to the rapid progress, it is possible to state that the life cycle of industrial ages is getting shorter which requires organisations and stakeholders to put their potential for innovation and supply chain strategies on a new level to achieve competitive advantages (Schrauf and Berttram, 2016). One organisational function and supply chain activity which plays a significant role in the “digital age” is the field of procurement that is the main focus of this research study. Porter (1998) categorise the organisational activities for value creation into primary and supporting activities, “procurement” is one of the support activities. In this context, it is evaluated to which extent the function, discipline, and activity of procurement can change to be a more critical and strategic interface within the area of supply chain management and to support organisational efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability within a long-term perspective.
According to Bucy et al. (2016) and Zhong et al. (2016), the actual global digital transformation of organisations is driven by “Big Data” with the perspective to put organisational profitability and competitiveness on a...