PhD defence Silke Herold

Keywords: Digital Procurement Transformation, Dynamic Capabilities, Machine Intelligence

"Mastering Digital Procurement Transformation: Leveraging Dynamic Capabilities for Value Generation in the Age of Machine Intelligence"

This dissertation focuses on the digital transformation of procurement, particularly how organizations develop the capabilities needed to successfully adopt advanced digital technologies, such as AI. The research emphasizes the role of dynamic capabilities (DCs), which help organizations sense, seize, and reconfigure their resources to navigate digital procurement transformation (DPT). The study is multi-method, comprising three key components: a systematic literature review, a longitudinal case study of multinational corporations, and an experimental study on AI-powered negotiations. Through these methods, the research identifies different paths organizations take in adopting procurement technologies. The dissertation highlights strategic components, such as leadership commitment and digital strategy, that influence these pathways and explores how technologies with varying levels of machine intelligence - augmentation, automation, and autonomization - affect procurement processes. The research contributes both to theory and practice by providing a conceptual model that organizations can use to guide their digital transformation efforts in procurement.

Click here for the live stream.