The Potential of Social Media in Emerging Supply Chain Management

This paper discusses the potential role of social media in managing supply chain activities for business in the developing countries and how to face unexpected challenges in these countries. Since there a limited research in the field of use social media in the supply chain, proposing the use of such platforms for third-world business might enable these enterprises to survive globally. Exploratory case studies performed by authors to drill down and figure out the issues faced by their business and how these businesses are trying to survive. Case studies are used to learn more about studied issues and unfold the hidden one. The study proposes a model of how the socialized platforms could give more visibility and knowledge discovery tool along supply chain channel. The model is extended that incorporates supply chain challenges in developing countries and the significant role of social media in proposing solutions. The proposed model will merge to business operating in developing countries context. Since the adoption of ERP systems was not enough to optimize business performance there, the proposed value of using social media as the most affordable platform will enable transparent supply chain activities along the integrated pipeline. The study provides the interrelated perspective of supply chain challenges and proposed solutions to overcome such issues. Many perceived values had been acknowledged of business such as more transparency with customers, prompt shipment notification or inventory drop, minimize supply chain risks and manage unfrozen external factors, working closely with multi-tier partners, optimize data exchange on day-to-day transactions. Social media could alert supply chain partners with potential risks. Prediction markets are proposed to adapt for better management.