TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Fröhlich, Elisabeth A1 - Steinbiß, Kristina T1 - Supplier relationship management goes digital: first empirical insights JF - Universal journal of industrial and business management N2 - In an increasingly competitive environment, suppliers are now seen as an important source of innovation. Long term partnerships enable companies to access the knowledge of suppliers to optimize their business. "Procurement 4.0" is one of the concepts that come to the fore when talking about digitalization of business processes. The major aim of this research is to discuss a conceptual model of "Procurement 4.0" and its potential to rethink the management of supplier relationships, which will be one of the main future tasks of procurement. The paper is based on a factual-analytical research approach that serves to continuously specify and supplement the elements of the frame of reference: Two challenging concepts, "Procurement 4.0" and Supplier Relationship Management, are merged to contribute to the fact that purchasing is indispensable as an "interface" within a global supply chain to reap the benefits of digitization. The factors that prove to be obstacles to digital supplier relationship management along the digital supplier journey - e.g. lack of guidelines, approaches or tools and a lack of understanding of the importance of long-term relationships - are reflected within the identified technologies of digital transformation. A comprehensive analysis of the given situation within digital supplier relationship management in Germany is provided. The most important digital supplier touchpoints are discussed in order to develop a traditional supplier relationship towards a digital relationship management. Thus, this paper succeeds in illustrating how the innovative concept of a supplier journey can be implemented in practice to counteract the future, entrepreneurial challenges. KW - supplier relationship management KW - Procurement 4.0 KW - digitalization KW - strategic procurement KW - digital purchasing KW - maturity models in procurement KW - supplier journey Y1 - 2020 UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:rt2-opus4-26136 SN - 2332-3310 SS - 2332-3310 U6 - https://doi.org/10.13189/ujm.2020.080303 DO - https://doi.org/10.13189/ujm.2020.080303 VL - 8 IS - 3 SP - 63 EP - 73 S1 - 11 PB - Horizon Research Publishing CY - San Jose, CA ER -