CIRCULAR ECONOMY TRANSITION OPENNESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: THE MEDIATING ROLES OF PROCUREMENT 4.0 AND GREEN PROCUREMENT ORIENTATION

Abstract

High rate of rise of Industry 4.0 technologies has radically changed the procurement as a more of supporting role to a form of competitive strength and a key to organizational sustainability. Simultaneously, growing environmental forces and regulatory requirements have deepened and intensified the shift to the idea of circular economy practices, that focus on efficiency in resource consumption, minimization of waste, and the development of sustainable value. This paper explores the association between Strategic Procurement 4.0 performance and organizational competitiveness considering mediation of Circular Economy Transition Openness (CETO) and the influence of green procurement orientation as sustainability-driven procurement practice.

The quantitative research design was used to collect data based on use of structured questionnaire which focused on survey of procurement and supply chain professionals. The research aimed to test the proposed research framework with the help of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) on the basis of Smart- PLS. Assessment of measurement models indicated acceptable reliability of the indicators, internal consistency, convergent validity and discriminant validity. The output of the structural models, which was obtained under the influence of the bootstrapping procedure with 5,000 sub-samples, demonstrated that the practices of Strategic Procurement 4.0, which are backed by digital technologies like big data analytics, cloud-based ERP systems, and artificial intelligence, influence the competitiveness of the organization significantly. Moreover, the results prove that openness of Circular Economy mediate this interaction in part, which does not deny the fact that those firms who adopt green procurement and capitalize on their digital procurement advantages are more likely to embrace the principles of the circular economy which, in its turn, fosters the growth of the competitive performance.

The empirical correlation between Procurement 4.0, the ready to be a part of the circular economy, and competitiveness, that are united in the scope of the study, adds to the existing literature. In practice, the results give managers information about the ways of how the digital procurement strategies can contribute to the sustainability, as well as long-term competitive advantage simultaneously.