University of Twente Student Theses
As of Friday, 8 August 2025, the current Student Theses repository is no longer available for thesis uploads. A new Student Theses repository will be available starting Friday, 15 August 2025.
Beyond Automation : Transforming Strategic Sourcing Decisions Through Industry 4.0 Technologies
Zavolokova, Polina (2025) Beyond Automation : Transforming Strategic Sourcing Decisions Through Industry 4.0 Technologies.
|
PDF
783kB |
| Abstract: | The Fourth Industrial Revolution plays a transformative role in the way procurement decisions are made. In the past, procurement professionals based their decisions on personal judgement, non-integrated systems and data in spreadsheets. Nowadays as digitalisation progresses, purchasing managers are exposed to increasing amounts of data analytics, complex information and global supply networks. Industry 4.0 brings in technologies such as business intelligence, ERP systems and AI that reshape information management as well as decision-making in strategic sourcing processes. In the context of this transformation lies the concept of task augmentation, whereby digital technologies are used to enhance, rather than replace, human task performance. Despite these tools enabling decision makers to reduce cognitive overload, integrate extensive data and consider many variables, their use remains rather limited in strategic decisions. To explore how task augmentation affects the ways procurement managers deal with increased data exposure, a qualitative study using ten semi-structured interviews with purchasing professionals was conducted. The findings show that whilst digital tools facilitate data-driven decision-making, the decision makers’ role extends towards tasks such as validating AI output and applying effective AI prompting strategies. This study furthers the understanding of bounded rationality in context of digitalisation, where technologies can be used to enhance human decision-making capacities in strategic sourcing by promoting objectiveness, data visualisation and extensive decision-making criteria. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | International Business Administration BSc (50952) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106788 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page