Table 6 Uncertainties from the case...

Table 6

Uncertainties from the case studies

Main construct	Quotes from the case studies	Descriptive in vivo code	IPT code value
Environmental Uncertainty
Environmental complexity
Product level of customization	“Buyers require the implementation of questionnaires to be submitted to potential suppliers, and the resulting scorecard has to be highly according to the specific service asked for by the buyer”. – Provider L “Customers that resort to purchasing platforms to perform the scouting process are typically looking for a very specialized solution tailored to their business needs”. – Provider B “AI in supplier scouting helps in channelling specific purchasing requests so the complexity of the AI-based solution is significant. If the buyer has generic requirements for the scouting process, traditional solutions work well”. – Provider K	IT provider's level of customization of the supplier scouting solution required by the buyer firm	customized product
Environmental dynamism
Maturity of the underlying technology	“Companies are craving AI and the innovation it can bring in the scouting process. However, actual implementations are still in an early stage and technology providers are struggling to deliver what they promised, as the technology has yet to reach the maturity stage of adoption”. – Provider I “The adoption of AI in procurement is very low; only around 2% of Italian firms use digital platforms for supplier scouting”. – Provider D “The maturity of AI application in scouting is still too low to justify massive investments in this kind of solutions, even though it shows a huge potential growth in its adoption rate”. – Provider E	Maturity of the AI technology and maturity of the procurement department in embracing the change suggested by AI	new technology
Sociopolitical component
Governmental regulatory control over the industry	“Firms have to deal with frequent changes in regulations about the management of suppliers' data and the level of control over the supply chain”. – Provider C “In highly a regulated industry, such as the oil & gas or energy sectors, the buyer firm is exposed to many regulations that change very quickly over time, so it is necessary to conduct informed scouting activities when a new supplier is required”. – Provider A	Requirements and changes in regulatory control over the industry	high regulatory control
Sourcing strategy
Strategic relevance of the purchasing category	“Having a high strategic relevance, core purchasing categories are a source of uncertainty as you have to define the right approach and the consequent impact on the strategic level of the organization. Scouting for a supplier of an indirect category is different; this kind of supplier is not differential in terms of strategic impact. So, applying AI in scouting for the management of core purchasing category can be considered as relevant at the strategic level”. – Provider F	Complexity of data gathering and analysis due to the strategic relevance of the purchasing category	from low to high depending on the category
Task Uncertainty
Organizational personnel component
Education and technological background and skills	“The lack of a true digital culture at the buyer firm is a problem for the implementation of AI in supplier scouting: if managers do not understand the value of the tons of data they have, they feed the procurement platform with poor quality data or misinterpret the results”. – Provider G “Most buyer miss a proactive approach to scouting, as they scout for new suppliers only when a new purchasing category is required”. – Provider D “Companies don't perceive the importance of digitalizing processes, and the involvement in digitalization projects is low. Only after the first applications do they start to understand the benefits of switching to digital and intelligent technologies”. – Provider F “Customers are experiencing adoption issues when it comes to AI, mostly due to a lack of appropriate background technological skills”. – Provider I	Level of digital competence among the procurement representatives in the buyer firm	low
Individual members' involvement and commitment to attaining the system's goals	“The top management of buying firms rarely has the right amount of commitment in pursuing complex and costly projects, like digitalizing and improving the scouting process, as they tend to look at the costs more than the potential benefits”. – Provider C “Organizations' lack of the culture needed to implement the innovation is a problem of change management: within the firm, every change is always seen as an obstacle, since they do not want to modify the current way of doing things and they do not feel the need to apply the AI”. – Provider H	Change management, top management endorsement and prioritization of procurement innovation projects	low
Organizational functional and staff units component
Inter-unit conflict among organizational functional and staff units	“Different organizational units approach purchasing as stand-alone, causing a higher complexity as compared to the case of centralized purchasing requirements for the whole organization”. – Provider D “Firms have shown a lack of data consistency within different business units of the same organization, ultimately resulting in internal communication problems and data asymmetries”. – Provider H	Centralization of the supplier scouting process and information asymmetries among different units	low
Task analysability
Extent to which established practices and procedures are followed in performing the task	“The scouting process does not follow a structured approach based on the definition of procedures, but every instance is managed differently”. – Provider D “The approach to data gathering for the scouting process is typically conducted in a reactive way, as the lack of standard practices and procedures for proactively and systematically searching for relevant information prevents buying firms from predictively analysing real-time supplier data”. – Provider F	Standardized procedures for the supplier scouting activities and visibility of the whole process	low
Knowledge intensity
Intensity of knowledge required by the processes	“Suppliers are reluctant to share their data publicly without a guarantee that their data will remain safe and accessible by selected customers”. – Provider B “The scouting and qualification of new suppliers require an extensive amount of data. In some countries, the government publishes detailed information about organizations operating in that country (e.g. in the UK). This facilitates the task of collecting data for these countries, but in many other countries (e.g. in Italy), these data are not available”. – Provider J “The adoption of AI in the supplier scouting process requires an extensive range of different data, as buying firms are not interested only in the economic data of their suppliers. To build an efficient scouting system, the presence of the right data is mandatory for the training phase of the algorithm”. – Provider K	Access to knowledge and insights about the supply network and the industrial context	high
Partnership Uncertainty
Supplier's asset specificity
Extent to which the supply of the good/service requires capabilities	“Most customers seek for long-term, strategic partnership, as a more extensive knowledge of supplier data and a greater level of supplier engagement calls for more effective supplier-development projects”. – Provider J	Buyers' search for strategic partnerships and long-term relationships	high
Mutual trust
Degree of comfort about sharing sensitive information with the provider	“Customers are not willing to share their data about the supply base with their competitors or other potential suppliers”. – Provider C “Suppliers aren't comfortable in sharing their data with every customer on the platform, just with the selected ones”. – Provider K “Providers have to protect the confidentiality of data of their customers and their relationship with potential suppliers in order to avoid information spill overs”. – Provider L	Willingness of buyer and supplier firms to share data between themselves and with the IT provider	weak

Main construct	Quotes from the case studies	Descriptive in vivo code	IPT code value
Environmental Uncertainty
Environmental complexity
Product level of customization	“Buyers require the implementation of questionnaires to be submitted to potential suppliers, and the resulting scorecard has to be highly according to the specific service asked for by the buyer”. – Provider L“Customers that resort to purchasing platforms to perform the scouting process are typically looking for a very specialized solution tailored to their business needs”. – Provider B“AI in supplier scouting helps in channelling specific purchasing requests so the complexity of the AI-based solution is significant. If the buyer has generic requirements for the scouting process, traditional solutions work well”. – Provider K	IT provider's level of customization of the supplier scouting solution required by the buyer firm	customized product
Environmental dynamism
Maturity of the underlying technology	“Companies are craving AI and the innovation it can bring in the scouting process. However, actual implementations are still in an early stage and technology providers are struggling to deliver what they promised, as the technology has yet to reach the maturity stage of adoption”. – Provider I“The adoption of AI in procurement is very low; only around 2% of Italian firms use digital platforms for supplier scouting”. – Provider D“The maturity of AI application in scouting is still too low to justify massive investments in this kind of solutions, even though it shows a huge potential growth in its adoption rate”. – Provider E	Maturity of the AI technology and maturity of the procurement department in embracing the change suggested by AI	new technology
Sociopolitical component
Governmental regulatory control over the industry	“Firms have to deal with frequent changes in regulations about the management of suppliers' data and the level of control over the supply chain”. – Provider C“In highly a regulated industry, such as the oil & gas or energy sectors, the buyer firm is exposed to many regulations that change very quickly over time, so it is necessary to conduct informed scouting activities when a new supplier is required”. – Provider A	Requirements and changes in regulatory control over the industry	high regulatory control
Sourcing strategy
Strategic relevance of the purchasing category	“Having a high strategic relevance, core purchasing categories are a source of uncertainty as you have to define the right approach and the consequent impact on the strategic level of the organization. Scouting for a supplier of an indirect category is different; this kind of supplier is not differential in terms of strategic impact. So, applying AI in scouting for the management of core purchasing category can be considered as relevant at the strategic level”. – Provider F	Complexity of data gathering and analysis due to the strategic relevance of the purchasing category	from low to high depending on the category
Task Uncertainty
Organizational personnel component
Education and technological background and skills	“The lack of a true digital culture at the buyer firm is a problem for the implementation of AI in supplier scouting: if managers do not understand the value of the tons of data they have, they feed the procurement platform with poor quality data or misinterpret the results”. – Provider G“Most buyer miss a proactive approach to scouting, as they scout for new suppliers only when a new purchasing category is required”. – Provider D“Companies don't perceive the importance of digitalizing processes, and the involvement in digitalization projects is low. Only after the first applications do they start to understand the benefits of switching to digital and intelligent technologies”. – Provider F“Customers are experiencing adoption issues when it comes to AI, mostly due to a lack of appropriate background technological skills”. – Provider I	Level of digital competence among the procurement representatives in the buyer firm	low
Individual members' involvement and commitment to attaining the system's goals	“The top management of buying firms rarely has the right amount of commitment in pursuing complex and costly projects, like digitalizing and improving the scouting process, as they tend to look at the costs more than the potential benefits”. – Provider C“Organizations' lack of the culture needed to implement the innovation is a problem of change management: within the firm, every change is always seen as an obstacle, since they do not want to modify the current way of doing things and they do not feel the need to apply the AI”. – Provider H	Change management, top management endorsement and prioritization of procurement innovation projects	low
Organizational functional and staff units component
Inter-unit conflict among organizational functional and staff units	“Different organizational units approach purchasing as stand-alone, causing a higher complexity as compared to the case of centralized purchasing requirements for the whole organization”. – Provider D“Firms have shown a lack of data consistency within different business units of the same organization, ultimately resulting in internal communication problems and data asymmetries”. – Provider H	Centralization of the supplier scouting process and information asymmetries among different units	low
Task analysability
Extent to which established practices and procedures are followed in performing the task	“The scouting process does not follow a structured approach based on the definition of procedures, but every instance is managed differently”. – Provider D“The approach to data gathering for the scouting process is typically conducted in a reactive way, as the lack of standard practices and procedures for proactively and systematically searching for relevant information prevents buying firms from predictively analysing real-time supplier data”. – Provider F	Standardized procedures for the supplier scouting activities and visibility of the whole process	low
Knowledge intensity
Intensity of knowledge required by the processes	“Suppliers are reluctant to share their data publicly without a guarantee that their data will remain safe and accessible by selected customers”. – Provider B“The scouting and qualification of new suppliers require an extensive amount of data. In some countries, the government publishes detailed information about organizations operating in that country (e.g. in the UK). This facilitates the task of collecting data for these countries, but in many other countries (e.g. in Italy), these data are not available”. – Provider J“The adoption of AI in the supplier scouting process requires an extensive range of different data, as buying firms are not interested only in the economic data of their suppliers. To build an efficient scouting system, the presence of the right data is mandatory for the training phase of the algorithm”. – Provider K	Access to knowledge and insights about the supply network and the industrial context	high
Partnership Uncertainty
Supplier's asset specificity
Extent to which the supply of the good/service requires capabilities	“Most customers seek for long-term, strategic partnership, as a more extensive knowledge of supplier data and a greater level of supplier engagement calls for more effective supplier-development projects”. – Provider J	Buyers' search for strategic partnerships and long-term relationships	high
Mutual trust
Degree of comfort about sharing sensitive information with the provider	“Customers are not willing to share their data about the supply base with their competitors or other potential suppliers”. – Provider C“Suppliers aren't comfortable in sharing their data with every customer on the platform, just with the selected ones”. – Provider K“Providers have to protect the confidentiality of data of their customers and their relationship with potential suppliers in order to avoid information spill overs”. – Provider L	Willingness of buyer and supplier firms to share data between themselves and with the IT provider	weak

Source(s): Table created by authors

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