Navigating the Theory–Practice–Potential Gap: A Multi-Method Exploration of Procurement 4.0 Automation in the Manufacturing Sector

Procurement 4.0 marks a transformative shift driven by advanced Industry 4.0 technologies. Despite growing academic interest and recognised benefits, particularly through process automation, implementation in practice remains slow. This delays the realisation of opportunities such as productivity gains. To support the transformation of procurement in the manufacturing industry, where it typically makes a significant contribution to corporate success by managing the largest cost block, this PhD thesis adopts an exploratory multi-method approach. As a first step, the thesis presents a systematic literature review, analysing 58 references and mapping 275 Procurement 4.0 applications onto an extended procurement process model, visualised as a heatmap. This serves as a practical and academic reference point. Building on this, a multiple case study of five Austrian manufacturing firms explores the real-world implementation and impacts of Procurement 4.0 applications, identifying 169 factors aligned with a conceptual research framework. Finally, a Delphi-based expert study involving 35 procurement professionals assesses the current level of adoption, perceived benefits, and prospects of Procurement 4.0 applications across 15 projections. Findings reveal a notable gap between academic debate, practical implementation, and perceived potential—termed the Theory–Practice–Potential gap. While advanced and even futuristic applications are widely discussed in the literature, their adoption lags, despite acknowledged benefits. Expert ratings further suggest that augmentation and automation are seen as more relevant than autonomisation, indicating that fully autonomous procurement may remain an aspirational goal rather than an operational reality, even beyond 2035. This research offers novel insights through its explorative design and focus on practitioner-informed applications. It is, to the author’s knowledge, the only recent Delphi-based expert study explicitly examining automation within a Procurement 4.0 context. In summary, the results provide researchers with a systematic and up-to-date overview of key applications and open research areas, while offering practitioners in the manufacturing industry a structured foundation for navigating the implementation of Procurement 4.0 applications. However, due to the study’s exploratory nature, limited case sample, and regional focus, the generalisability of the findings remains constrained.