Exploring social media use in B2B supply chain operations

Adoption of Social Media in Socio-Technical Systems: A Survey

“…The authors demonstrate this relationship through theoretical development and its empirical verification of the relationship between the use of social media and organizational performance, analyzing a sample of 201 technology companies in Spain. The study described in [87] research reveals that many organizations are using social media in B2B supply chain operations. This trend appears to be on the rise, even as social media offers an openness of business data that does not exist in traditional systems and this could raise safety concerns.…”

Utilizing social media in a supply chain B2B setting: A knowledge perspective

“…This is especially important in today's technology‐driven environment “as information gathered from other resources (e.g., statistical or company reports) are often dated and presents a rather complex picture which is difficult to decipher” (Ogilvie et al 2018, p. 57). Social media can further facilitate knowledge sharing between supply chain members with the trust, common value, and deep understanding developed through real‐time, one‐to‐one, or many‐to‐many virtual interactions (Baehr & Alex‐Brown, 2010; Chae et al 2020; Neeley & Leonardi, 2018; Reiter et al 2017)…”

“…This is especially important in today's technology-driven environment "as information gathered from other resources (e.g., statistical or company reports) are often dated and presents a rather complex picture which is difficult to decipher" (Ogilvie et al 2018, p. 57). Social media can further facilitate knowledge sharing between supply chain members with the trust, common value, and deep understanding developed through real-time, one-to-one, or many-to-many virtual interactions (Baehr & Alex-Brown, 2010;Chae et al 2020;Neeley & Leonardi, 2018;Reiter et al 2017) Although the rapid growth of social media's popularity has made such opportunities more feasible and appealing, Gebremikael et al (2019) noted that only a small number of organizations are effectively leveraging social media to improve supply chain intelligence gathering. Specific to the current research context, if SAMs effectively utilize social media to stay in close contact with customers, suppliers, logistics service providers, and other relevant supply chain members, they will be able to collect useful information and develop valuable knowledge regarding products and competitors.…”

“…The usage of social media in SCM has become more prevalent and encompasses many different supply chain activities ranging from demand forecasting, prediction markets, inventory management, marketing, sourcing, product development and production, delivery, product returns and reverse logistics, to risk management (Huang et al 2020; Qiu, & Kumarb, 2017). However, most of the research on social media use in the SCM context to date has been business‐to‐consumer (B2C)‐related (Chae et al 2020). B2C social media applications primarily focus on engaging with individual consumers to improve sales and operational performances and on supporting a company's downstream supply chain.…”

“…B2C social media applications primarily focus on engaging with individual consumers to improve sales and operational performances and on supporting a company's downstream supply chain. In contrast, social media's use in the business-to-business (B2B) context can facilitate interactions among supply chain partners and often involves sharing proprietary information in a way that is more efficient than using traditional communication channels (Chae et al 2020). Thus, while it is similar to the B2C context in terms of improving communication, information sharing, and market sensing through interactive Web-based technologies, B2B social media is unique in that it focuses on the business interactions and gives business relationships a human element (Chae et al 2020).…”