Social Media Collaboration in the Supply Chain: A Look at How Social Media Communication Tools Can Benefit Businesses

Posted: January 5th, 2023

Social Media Collaboration in the Supply Chain: A Look at How Social Media Communication Tools Can Benefit Businesses

Desmond King

Lincoln University

Dr. Ijhirikia

Social Media Collaboration in the Supply Chain: A Look at How Social Media Communication Tools Can Benefit Businesses

Table of Contents

Contents                                                                                                                     Page

ABSTRACT. 3

INTRODUCTION.. 4

Problem Statement 6

Research Questions. 6

Scope of the Study. 7

Significance of the Study. 7

Hypothesis. 8

LITERATURE REVIEW… 8

Social Media is Being Used for Growing Businesses. 8

Social Media is Being Used for Sharing Information. 9

Social Media is an Important Tool for Providing Information to Stakeholders. 10

Measuring Social Media Insights. 11

METHODOLOGY.. 12

Research Philosophy. 12

Research Design. 12

Sampling Techniques. 13

Data Collection Methods. 14

Data Analysis Methods. 15

Ethical Considerations. 15

Limitations. 16

RESULTS. 17

Findings. 20

Prevalence of Use of Social Media in Supply Chains and Logistics. 20

The Role Played By Social Media in Supply Chains and Logistics. 20

The Challenges Experienced By Forms in Deploying Social Media in Their Supply Chain and Logistical Operations. 21

DISCUSSION.. 21

The Role of Social Media towards Growth of Businesses. 22

How Social Media Has Facilitated Information Sharing. 22

How Social Media Has Facilitated Provision of Information to Stakeholders. 23

How Social Media Has Enabled Supply Chain Participants to Monitor Periodically the Progress of Supply Chain Events. 23

The Ways in Which Social Media Has Been Used to Measure Social Media Insights. 23

Implications in Logistics. 24

Implications in Human Resources Management 24

REFERENCES. 26

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the role of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn among others on the supply chain. Most specifically, the paper evaluates the use of social media in capturing the impact on supply chain events and establishes a context for those events. In addition, the paper also investigates the use of social media in building relationships among the partners in a supply chain. In carrying out this analysis, the paper describes a number of concepts as they apply in the supply chain. Given that most businesses have turned to social media in passing across information both within and outside the organization, there is a need to come up with a means of evaluating the gains of using these social sites. Therefore, the paper will also look at the metrics in social media that help businesses determine their return on investment (ROI). This way, the businesses are able to monitor each department and know the departments that need more focus. The paper sums up by providing recommendations for future research on the impact of social media on the supply chain.

INTRODUCTION

Social media refers to computer-mediated technologies that enable the creation and sharing of information, ideas, and other forms of expressions through virtual communities and networks (Ellison, 2007). It is a form of communication platform that uses web-based technologies, desktop computers, and mobile technologies to establish an interactive environment in which people discuss, share, co-create and modify information. Social media has introduced significant changes to communication between individuals, communities, organizations and businesses. It has changed the manner in which individuals communicate and hence has become a focus of the emerging field of techno-self-studies. This mode of communication differs from paper-based media such as newspapers and magazines and other electronic forms of communication such as TV broadcasting in a number of ways including reach, usability, immediacy, frequency and performance. It operates in a dialogic transmission system where many sources get to reach many people unlike the traditional media, which operates on a monologic transmission system in which one source has to reach many people. Currently, there are a number of social sites including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr among others (Barnes, 2015). Researchers have established a range of positive and negative effects of the use of social media. One of the positive effects is that social media improves the sense of connectedness of individuals through real and online communities. Governments, corporations, small-scale businesses, for-profit and non-profit organizations also benefit from social media as it provides an effective medium of communication. On the other hand, some analysts have raised concerns about the possible links of heavy social media usage with depression, instances of cyber bullying, trolling and online harassment. Given that social media has more positives than negatives, businesses are taking advantage of the platforms to reach out to their loyal customers as well as recruit new customers. According to a research by the Experian Marketing Services, 91 % of modern day adults use social media on a regular basis (Hooper, 2013).

In turn, businesses have adopted social media technology as a marketing, communication, customer engagement tool. Progressive businesses seeking to establish their positions in the market realize the value of being present in the social space using social media.  At the onset, social media has been traditionally used by business organizations to engage with clients to understand their needs and preferences and communicate vital information speedily and at minimal costs. Other companies have gone ahead to use social media extensively in their marketing activities because of its pervasiveness among the targeted audience. However, the application of social media in business is evolving fact as the digital and online technologies advance. Businesses and business processes that were previously hesitant to join the social media bandwagon are reconsidering their decisions and discovering the value of incorporating it into their business processes. Their hesitancy emanated from that which usually bedevils the adoption digital technologies empowered by the internet due to concerns of privacy and confidentiality, and rising propagation of cybercrime. However, several businesses in supply chain and logistics sectors, which were slow initially in adopting the use of social sites, are not only making use of the social networking platforms for reaching out to clients, but are also tracking the data for return on investment (ROI), as well as coming up with their own internal cloud environments to facilitate staff engagement with the customers, suppliers, distributors and other stakeholders. Whereas some businesses have not recognized the use of such platforms for sales and marketing to facilitate business growth, evidence shows that social media creates an avenue for vendors and suppliers to meet and interact. Following the wide scale use of social media in business circles, governments have come up with policies and agencies to prevent various cases of cybercrime that have emerged.

Problem Statement

There have been many researches on the use of social media in business. Therefore, most people acknowledge the role that social media plays in the growth of not only businesses but also non-profit organizations. Currently, businesses use social media for various reasons, which include gaining valuable customer insights, increasing the awareness of a brand, promoting customer loyalty, running targeted advertisements with real-time results, and generating higher converting leads among others. Despite this progress, some businesses are still adamant about the role of social media on the supply chain. Besides, the field of supply chain management and logistics has not attracted as much research activity compared to other fields, such as marketing and branding. Consequently, information about the role of social media in supply chains is scanty (Papagiannidis, Bourlakis & See-To, 2019). Therefore, the purpose of this report is to show how social media platforms have contributed to growth in the supply chain processes and management. Today, social media is not only being used to socialize, but also being used in the supply chain to grow businesses and increase value to the customers. In this regard, while 70% of business entities use social media, it is not clear how many of these used social media technology in the supply chain and logistical activities.

Research Questions

  1. What is the role of social media towards growth of businesses?
  2. How has social media facilitated sharing of information?
  3. How has social media facilitated provision of information to stakeholders?
  4. How has social media enabled supply chain participants to monitor periodically the progress of supply chain events?
  5. What are the ways in which social media has been used to measure social media insights?

Scope of the Study

This paper investigates the abilities of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among others, on their current and potential impact on the supply chain. The paper will particularly examine the role of social media in capturing the impact on the events of supply chain and developing a context for those events. The report will also cover the significance of social media in the supply chain to establish relationships among participants in the supply chain. In addition, the report will cover several concepts relating to the supply chain that will include the reputation of the supply chain and the influence within the supply chain. Finally, the report will look at the various ways in which social media has been used to measure social media insights such as the use of surveys, customer feedbacks and ratings, Google analytics and company sales and customer satisfaction.

Significance of the Study

Supply chains have gone global because of the proliferation of international trade. Global supply chains are very large and involve numerous players, including suppliers, vendors, logistics service provides working alongside manufacturers and distribution networks, to ensure that goods and services reach the consumers. Any technology that can facilitate supply chain management and logistics contributes to the growth of international trade. By revealing the extent of use of social media in supply chain activities in business organizations, understanding the opportunities that these technology avails for organizational growth and prosperity, and demonstrating the utility of social media in improving organizational performance, business can be informed about the best practices of adopting and employing social media in their supply chain and logistical activities. Besides, the knowledge about the utility of social media in supply chains and  

Hypothesis

While most businesses have embraced social media in most of their operations, most have not fully embraced the concept in their supply chain.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social Media is Being Used for Growing Businesses

According to Issa, and Kommers (2013), more than 1.5 billion people are using social media in world with 70% of businesses already using this mode of communication. Shankar et al. (2011) posits that given that more shoppers are using social media and further use them to make shopping decisions, it is only sensible that entrepreneurs should adopt these platforms in promoting their businesses. Paquette (2013) consents that social media sites are a better means of advertising since they store information on all their users and hence ensure that marketing reaches the target market of the retailer using the platform. In addition, Hill,

Provost, and Volinsky (2006), in their research, found out that organizations can use social networks to predict the intention of a client to make a purchase. This is mainly done by considering the choice of network of an organization and examining the data of its network.

Carrying out an assessment of the network’s data significantly improves the marketing efforts of an organization since it provides it with crucial information on the users of the network.

This helps determine the best social media tactics to use and thus boosting the sales of the company. This will in turn lead to growth of the business.

Social media also promotes the growth of a business by improving the supply chain processes of the business (Meltzer, 2014). It achieves this by providing the philosophy and technology to collect and communicate the diverse information and knowledge in a manner that allows collaboration and cooperation between participants of the supply chain process. It enables the gathering of information from a large number of users from various sectors in the supply chain. Given that the information is obtained from a large number of participants, the information that might not be collected may be availed in the supply chain discussions. As a result, social media assists in generating a larger amount of information. Having access to this large information and information sources assists businesses to not only make sales and marketing, but also find solutions to various problems facing them (Fill, 2006).

Social Media is Being Used for Sharing Information

Social Media is being used in the supply chain to build, initiate and expand relationships among trading partners. It achieves this in various ways including information sharing, knowledge sharing, sharing of plans, sharing of activities. Using the social media platform, companies can initiate communication with their clients, generate demand, cut down on operation costs, circumvent any risks, increase productivity and improve their market intelligence (Hajli, 2015). In addition, social media assists companies come up with better ideas for improving the supply chain processes and finding solutions to existing problems by seeking a collective contribution of the supply chain trading partners (Cetinkaya, 2010). In this case, the information provided by these supply chain partners can provide significant insights into a number of issues affecting the supply chain, the industry and the competition among other issues. It is also used to build relationships and establish the key performance indicators including the on-time performance or a carrier or slow payments from a shipper. Some organizations also use these sites to obtain information from their clients on what they can do to make their business better.

Social media also enables participants of the supply chain to keep track of the supply chain events and transactions to ensure that everyone is updated on the current state of a business for instance in cases where there is delay in shipping or where a carrier has failed to collect a shipment (Alor-Hernandez et al., 2011). Twitter messages, for instance, can show the departure or arrival of a shipment from a given warehouse. It can also be employed in communicating the need for shipments of a given type and or delivering alerts to drivers on accidents or road closures. Social media can also provide organizations or business with insightful information in a timelier manner concerning the risks and events allowing them adequate time to take corrective measures and hence minimizing the impact in the event of a disruption in the supply chain (Kanana, 2014).

Social Media is an Important Tool for Providing Information to Stakeholders

Various companies use social media implementations that only their employees can access. For example, Home Depot have their own social media sharing website called The Warehouse to help in the faster movement of information between different departments and from the management to the employees. This system has ensured that information reaches people who have to be on the know as quickly as possible. It is an invaluable tool that supply chain professionals use to identify innovations, and understand the trend in commodity pricing (Rimiene & Bernatonyte, 2013). In addition, it helps capture the best practices and fosters a collaborative working relationship with stakeholders, suppliers and other concerned parties. Supply chain management is manly about establishing the most efficient of delivering information (Felea & Albastroiu, 2013). Therefore, social media assists in the distribution of significant information and continues being a prominent and effective channel that businesses and other organizations use to distribute that information. Businesses that do not use social media miss these opportunities and the opportunities for the business to expand. Concerning the sharing of information, social media also increases the depth of information shared (Kümpel, Karnowski, & Keyling, 2015). Given that the platform involves a large number of participants, in which each of the participants has access to private information, these participants are therefore able to come up with different perspectives on various issues. Bringing all these perspectives together provides deep information about an issue of concern.

Measuring Social Media Insights

A successful venture into the social media platform requires an evaluation of the strategies to determine the return on investment (ROI). Other than determining the impact of the organization, measuring and tracking ROI allows marketers to put more time and resources on strategies that are working and seek ways of improving those that are not working (Banke-Thomas, et al., 2015). Therefore, measuring ROI has various advantages among which include changing the perception of the social media within the organization, showing the impact of social media on various departments outside of marketing, letting one know the efforts and resources that are working and find ways of improving them; and allowing one determine gaps in the overall strategy among others. Social media metrics are a measure of whether one is achieving the business goals and objectives or not. The social metrics such as likes, comments, followers, and shares are in some cases referred to as “vanity” metrics and should not be disregarded as they help gauge a business’ social presence (Jolly, 2015). One can use these metrics to gauge his or her business against those of the competitors. There are different social media ROI tools among which include surveys, consumer feedback and ratings; Google analytics and company sales and customer satisfaction among others. According to Albert O. Hirshman, customers can have a significant impact on the companies and markets in their exit and voice behaviors (as cited in Kucuk, 2008). This is the significance of surveys. During these surveys, customer can be sent written questionnaires or asked questions concerning a company, what they like and what they dislike about the company. Surveys are therefore important as they provide real time response and so the company can know whether they are heading in the right direction or not. Another way of doing this is through Google analytics. Google analytics enables reports that show the amount of revenue derived from all sources of social media (Clifton, 2012). It shows the conversions report that enables one to quantify the value of the social platform.

METHODOLOGY

Research Philosophy

This study used the interpretivism paradigm as a research philosophy. Concisely, the researcher felt that knowledge can be generated and advanced by interpreting the opinions and experiences of others (Rahi, 2017). The philosophy of a study articulates the worldview of the researcher relating to the source, creation and interpretation of knowledge. In addition, a research philosophy articulates the sources, nature and development of knowledge related to a phenomenon in society. It forms the foundations for the collection, analysis, and application data related to a phenomenon. In this regard, the researcher took the view that reality is socially constructed and that multiple realities exist. In this regard, the goal of this study was to understand the unique, specific and deviant applications of social media in supply chains as a business phenomenon. In the same vein, the researcher had a subjectivist epistemological founding in which he believed that it was untenable to separate people from their knowledge and, in turn, a researcher cannot be delinked from a study (Mohajan, 2018). In this regard, the knowledge developed from this study was relative because it was value bound, and based on the culture, context and period of the phenomenon, which in this case, is the utilization of social media in supply chains. This inteptretivist founding anchored the design of this study.   

Research Design

The descriptive research design was employed in this study. This design seeks to gather information relating to the status of a phenomenon and describing its existence based on the contemporary context in society (Mohajan, 2018). Therefore, descriptive design seeks to explain the who, what, when and where about the use of social media in supply chains. Generally, the research design expounds on the overall strategy employed in a study that is directed towards answering the research question, and therefore provides guidelines on how data is collected measured and analyzed in the study.

Qualitative research strategy was used in this study because it could facilitate the comprehensive description of the social phenomenon of using social media in supply chains. Besides, qualitative research provides several methods of collecting data, thus enabling the researcher to select an approach that best suited his circumstances and context (Mohajan, 2018). In this case, the researcher selected he qualitative approach because it was flexible and convenient under the prevailing covid-19 pandemic circumstances in which, traveling, large gatherings, and extended physical interactions are discouraged by public health officials and the government  to prevent the spread of the disease. In the same vein, the researcher decided to conduct a secondary research rather than a primary one for the same reasons. In this case, the researcher relied on the information and data collected by others rather that collecting it himself because of the aforementioned limitations. Besides, secondary research is convenient because it can easily fit into the researchers schedule by not involving other human beings or minimizing human-human interaction. It is also cost effective and saves time due to its nature of using information that has already been generated by others. In fact, the most significant and onerous task of the researcher in this study is the interpretation of the knowledge created by others and relating it to the current context in the business arena to explain how social media is used in supply chains.    

Sampling Techniques

Purposive sampling was employed to obtain 50 relevant secondary sources initially selected for this study. Purposive sampling is the intentional selection of data sources based on the relevance on the information they provide in relation to the aims and objectives of the study. Therefore, it is a non-probability approach to sampling because some sources are preferred by the researcher from others intentionally, thus indicating a sense of selection bias (Rahi, 2017).  In this case, purposive sampling was used to intentionally select appropriate secondary sources from online repositories because they would contain information that would facilitate the answering of the research question.

The intended sources were described by inclusive and excusive criteria. The inclusive criteria included, firstly, that the secondary sources were not published more than 10 years before the study; in this case, acceptable secondary sources were published in 2011 or later. However, secondary publications authored before this date were accepted provided they contained relevant information that explained principles, theories and concepts, which could not be easily accessed from the available more recent sources. Secondly, only secondary sources published in English were retrieved. Thirdly, the relevance of the secondary sources was ascertained by scanning through their abstracts. Contrastingly, publications authored in any other language except from English were ignored. Similarly, secondary sources from unreliable sources were also ignored. Sources that were considered unreliable included online publishers that had no scholarly or industry repute, websites and publications whose authors were undisclosed, and sources whose conflicts of interest, as demonstrated in their extreme bias, were obvious. 

Data Collection Methods

Secondary sources containing the relevant data and information were retrieved from open online sources from the college digital library and public repositories using search engines. For this study, Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic were he search engines used to query the databases for secondary sources. Peer reviewed journal articles, organizational publications from government and private organizations, expert opinions from renowned scholars and professionals, and interview excerpts from renowned professional personalities were retrieved from the databases. Selecting the appropriate secondary sources was conducted using key words. Some of the keywords used to facilitate the internet search included social media and supply chains, using social media in logistical operations, facilitating vendors through social media, social media and international trade, and globalized supply chains and social media.

Data Analysis Methods

Thematic analysis was used to make meaning of the data and information contained in the secondary sources. In thematic analysis, the researcher browsed through the contents of the publications identifying specific words and phrases that were related to the research objectives and questions. These words and phrases were condensed into themes and subthemes (Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). These were then distilled further to reveal the overarching themes relevant to the study question.

Ethical Considerations

The researcher encountered few ethical issues because the study did not involve human subjects. However, the researcher had to adhere to ethical conduct when conducting this study. Firstly, the researcher was conscious of his multiple roles when conducting the study. For instance, the researcher recognized that he was a collector and interpreter of information and knowledge contained in publications and archived materials from other researchers and industry professionals and organizations. In this regard, the researcher clearly distinguished the ideas of other researchers from his of his own by giving credit to the authors that had contributed to the knowledge and ideas presented in this study. In this care, the researcher gave credit through citing other people’s literary work. Secondly, the researcher endeavored to discuss intellectual property frankly, and therefore act authentically. In this regard, while the researcher was conscious of his perceptions about certain findings from the secondary sources, the researcher was conscious of his immersion into the phenomenon as a subjective participant in the study. Therefore, the researcher endeavored to be as objective as possible to reduce bias, while offering his opinions distinctively to avoid distorting the information presented by other published researchers, particularly when discussing intellectual property.    

Limitations

This study had several limitations. These limitations were majorly confined to methodology. The study relied on secondary sources to generate data for analysis. Since the researcher did not generate his own primary data and relied on that which had been generated by others, he was subjected to the biases of the dominant opinions presented in these sources. This was particularly exacerbated by the by the used of relatively few and purposively sampled secondary sources. Besides, the researcher had not access to the generators of the primary data presented in these publications to the confidentiality fidelity demonstrated by the primary researcher, such as the removal of identifiers. Therefore, the researcher was unable to pose any follow-up questions to or make clarifications with the study participants that provided the primary data. In turn, the researcher may have been unable to identify the industry specific and author specific biases in the secondary sources, causing them to be transferred into this study. Another limitation presented by the few sources is that the views presented therein and collated therefrom may not have been representative of the views about the influence of social media on supply chains across all industries. This is because some industries tend to be overrepresented over others in research studies because of the nature, magnitude and frequency of use of supply chains. In addition, the inconsistency in definitions of concepts and official statistics because of using dissimilar measures results when using multiple secondary sources authored in different periods. This may have made comparisons of the use of social media challenging considering that the application of digital technologies is still evolving.

RESULTS

From the 50 secondary sources retrieved from the online repositories, 24 fitted the selection criteria. Their distribution across the years of publications and the topics they addressed are summarized in table 1 and figure 1.

Table 1: Secondary Sources

TopicSecondary Sources
 AuthorsPublication Year
Social media use  
In growing businessesMeltzer2014
 Issa and Kommers2013
 Paquette2013
 Shankar et al.2011
 Hill, Provost, and Volinsky2006
 Fill2006
 Martini2016
In sharing informationHajli2015
 Kanana2014
 Alor-Hernandez et al.2011
 Cetinkaya2010
In informing stakeholdersKümpel, Karnowski, and Keyling2015
 Rimiene and Bernatonyte2013
 Felea and Albastroiu2013
In measuring social media insightsBanke-Thomas, et al.2015
 Jolly2015
 Clifton2012
 Kucuk2008
In supply chains and logisticsDenktaş-Şakar and Sürücü,2020
 Huang, Potter & Eyers2020
 Orji, Kusi-Sarpong and Gupta2020
 Papagiannidis, Bourlakis, and See-To2019
 Singh, Shukla and Mishra2018
 Elghannam, Mesias, and Escribano2017

Table 1 summarizes the secondary sources according to the themes they address. It also indicates the authors and years of publication for each secondary source.

Figure 1. Distribution of secondary sources across year of publication (2006-2020)

Figure 1 summarises the distribution of the secondary sources used in this study according to their years of publication, which ranges between 2006 and 2020. Most sources used in this study were published between 2013 and 2015. In addition, sources published in 2020 were the next most abundant in this study.

The literature review above has shown that indeed social media contributes to the growth of a business mainly due to its access to wide range of information and audience. These two aspects enable social media to facilitate the sharing of information and hence establish the root of problems and seek for solutions. In addition, by having an access to a wide audience, the social platform enables a real time interaction with the clients making it possible for the management to know what the clients need and how they should be treated. Social media has also been used as a platform where different stakeholders in an organization meet. Therefore, when a company wants to share its information with the customers on any changes in a product through modifications or the launch of a new product, then this is done through social media. Also, with the creation of other social sites such as Whatsapp, departmental heads are coming up with chat groups where any information regarding the department and the organization as a whole is posted on the chat group rather than having to make calls to all members (Martini, 2016). This saves both time and resources needed to deliver the message.

In some large multinational companies, the management organizes online meetings such as through Skype where meetings are carried out and ideas shared. In this mode of operation, all one needs is a computer and an Internet connection, which, with the advancement in technology, are very cheap. Thus, the company management finds out that they can do multiple things without having to move an inch. It also makes the management to be more organized as they are able to plan effectively their activities for a day without worrying about the time needed. The review has also shown that social media enables participants of a supply chain to monitor the progress of a venture and foresee the possible outcomes. It also allows the management to seek the contribution of each department towards achieving the company or organization’s goals. This is achievable through the social media metrics highlighted in which through surveys or Google analytics, information can be obtained from clients or customers on what impresses them most about a given product. The organization can then use the information to improve the state of the organization. Findings of this study further show that while there has been a significant progress on the use of social media in business, the use of social media on social platforms still lags behind. Most researchers have focused on the impact of social media on business as a whole but as this research has proven, the use of social media has similar benefits to the supply chain as it has on the business. (Fill, 2006).

Findings

The secondary sources revealed several insights regarding the prevalence of use of, the role played by, and the challenges experienced by firms in deploying social media in supply chains.

Prevalence of Use of Social Media in Supply Chains and Logistics

The study revealed that although the application of social media in supply chain and logistics was in its nascent stage and some applications were still experimental and industry-specific, some firms had managed to use social networking platforms quite effectively (Huang, Potter & Eyers, 2020). The approach to the adoption of new digital technologies by firms was instrumental in deciphering why some forms infused social media in the supply chains and logistics and why others did not. For instance, a study by Papagiannidis, Bourlakis, and See-To (2019) revealed that the most prevalent modern technologies employed by firs from the information obtained from their tweets were blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data analytics. This insights followed the information provided by firms in their Twitter handles under the hashtags; #supplychain and #logistics, which yielded 76,378 posts. Besides, they revealed that logistical companies, such as DHL had become proficient in applying social media and was publishing the DHL Trend Radar to explain industry trends and forecast future applications in supply chains.

The Role Played By Social Media in Supply Chains and Logistics

A study by Elghannam, Mesias, and Escribano (2017) on the Spanish food industry revealed that this industry suffered from long supply chains that delayed the delivery of agricultural products to market. However, the study revealed that small and medium enterprises in the food industry could benefit from using social media to shorten their supply chains and enabling then to supply their agricultural wares directly to the market. The study noted that social networks facilitated the customers’ preferences and perceptions on certain food products, and thus, helped firms identify diverse customer profiles. This information could help the agricultural and food SMEs reduce their logistical overheads, hence increasing their direct sales and profits. In the same vein, Singh, Shukla and Mishra (2018) revealed that social media facilitated the deployment of customer-centric supply chains in firms in the United Kingdom dealing with beef products. Using the support vector machine and multiscale bootstrap resampling approaches to analyses the positive and negative customers’ feedback relayed on Twitter, the study revealed that tweets about food availed in retail outlets were from domestic and global consumers and audiences, thus helping organizations identify the issues of concern to consumers that could be resolved using supply chain and logistic interventions. Regarding beef, these issues included concerns about the quality of beef based on smell, color and flavor, traceability, presence of excess fat, and presence of foreign bodies in the meat products. The study revealed that these negative issues could be addressed using animal welfare guidelines, increased cold storage efficiencies, maintaining traceability information and its flow from farm to shelf, allowing appropriate maturation periods, and employing good manufacturing practices.

The Challenges Experienced By Forms in Deploying Social Media in Their Supply Chain and Logistical Operations

Business enterprises, and especially the small and medium enterprises, were unable to implement social media technology to facilitate their supply chain and logistical operations because of the huge investment required, against their financial incapacity (Huang, Potter & Eyers, 2020).

DISCUSSION

In this section, the findings of the study were contextualized and related to the information gathered in the review of the literature. The discussion is conducted topically based on the five research questions posed in this study, which are:

  1. What is the role of social media towards growth of businesses?
  2. How has social media facilitated sharing of information?
  3. How has social media facilitated provision of information to stakeholders?
  4. How has social media enabled supply chain participants to monitor periodically the progress of supply chain events?
  5. What are the ways in which social media has been used to measure social media insights?

The Role of Social Media towards Growth of Businesses

The study revealed that social media contributes to business growth, when used smartly as a marketing tool. Papagiannidis, Bourlakis and See-To (2019) revealed similar capacity in social media when they revealed that the ability to endcast industry trends, promote value-based management practices, facilitate knowledge-based learning, and enhancing collaboration, enabled companies to improve their supply chain and logistical efficiencies, which could be translated into improved performance, profitability, and growth. Similarly, Govindan et al. (2018) indicated that the findings from big data analytics derived from social media and other data collection points in the supply chain speeded up decision-making, thus improving customer satisfaction and promoting organizational growth.

How Social Media Has Facilitated Information Sharing

This study confirmed the general observations in the business environment that social media was essentially an information sharing platform. It revealed that this application has utility in supply chain and logistical operations. However, many business establishments were still concerned by data security, which obstructed their use of social media as an information-sharing platform. These sentiments are explained by Szozda (2017), who noted that although may supply chain managers were cognizant of the changes accompanying the fourth industrial revolution and its effects on supply chain and logistical processes, they were concerned of sharing the information in the virtual world due to concerns related to the capacity of long-distance wireless networks and information security issues.   

How Social Media Has Facilitated Provision of Information to Stakeholders

The study revealed that companies that were proficient in using social media in their supply chain and logistics operations use it to inform their stakeholders. These sentiments are supported by Elghannam, Mesias and Escribano (2017) and Singh, Shukla and Mishra (2018), who demonstrated the ability of social media in shortening supply chains in the beef industry by collating the sentiments from social media users. Similarly, Yawar and Seuring (2017) noted the use of social media to inform stakeholders of unethical supply chain practices, and thus promoting the deployment of socially ethical practices in supply chains and logistics.

How Social Media Has Enabled Supply Chain Participants to Monitor Periodically the Progress of Supply Chain Events

The study revealed that social media was being deployed monitor supply chain and logistical events in the attempt of making these processes customer-centric. Although it was still being experimented with in several companies, Huang, Potter and Eyers (2020) revealed that social media helped monitor supply chain activities such as forecasting supply and demand, inventory management, reverse logistics challenges, customer preferences, supplier performance evaluation, delivery scheduling, and warehousing processes, which involved the participation of supply chain and logistics participants.

The Ways in Which Social Media Has Been Used to Measure Social Media Insights

The study revealed that social media possessed tools that could be used to measure social media insights such as the sentiments in the market relating to the effectiveness of social media deployment. Papagiannidis, Bourlakis and See-To (2019) revealed that big data analytics of twitter data could reveal the performance of supply chains from the social media insights of consumers and supply chain participants.

Implications in Logistics

This study has fundamental implications on the contemporary logistics discipline and the critical role being played by social media platforms and networks in modernizing logistical operations. Social media is an innovative technology that can be used to streamline logistical operations. It provides visibility of the logistical processes to stakeholders, thus circumventing the geographical and temporal barriers (Denktaş-Şakar & Sürücü, 2020). For instance, stakeholders can track their supplies from source or manufacturer to doorstep, which facilitates accountability and planning. Besides, the performance of logistics can be gauged using social media sentiments from customers. Therefore, understanding the potential of social media in operational efficiencies is critical for the logistics student and practitioners.  

Implications in Human Resources Management

This study has implications on the manner in which logistics and supply chain practitioners and operators conduct their business and activities. Human resource managers can gain insights about the performance of their logistical and supply chain activities, and their operational staff from sentiments posted by stakeholders over social media networks. This is particularly critical in the era where social sustainability in the logistics industry is critical and logistical firms are under pressure to reduce the carbon footprint and promote green supply chain activities (Orji, Kusi-Sarpong & Gupta, 2020). Besides, social media platforms have big data analytical capabilities that can help the human resources managers make informed decisions related to the human capital in their organizations based on the outcomes of the analysis of customer sentiments, third party logistical service providers, and other stakeholders.  

RECOMMENDATIONS

Following the findings of this study, there is a need for future research to focus on the specific aspects of the supply chain and social media’s role in improving them. For instance, future research should focus on the prevalence of social media use in supply chain and logistic activities, considering that the adoption of this technology was ongoing and yet to reach maturity. In addition, future studies can focus on how social media assists suppliers in the supply chain in meeting an organization’s goals. In addition, there is a need to conduct research on the most appropriate social media metric to use in evaluating the progress of a business’s supply chain. The management should look towards harmonizing these metrics to achieve the best results that will provide the true picture of the progress of an organization and help identify areas for improvement.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, social media has become a significant aspect in any business. With the evolving technology and accessibility, most people are coming online and seeking any information they need from online sites. Therefore, social platforms have become an inevitable place to be. Businesses are striving to carry all their activities online and so the brick and mortar design of operation may only be of great use in some cases rather than in others. The earlier businesses involve their supply chain in the online platform, the better, as it will allow participants enough time to adjust to the new mode of operation.

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