Social Media: A Catalyst to Environmental Sensing for Supply Chain Management

In today’s dynamic business environment organizations are competing in volatile marketplaces and to staycompetitive they need to explore new market opportunities and develop innovative ideas and flexibility to respondto fluctuations in the business environment. The purpose of this research is to explore how the use of socialmedia improves sensing capability of organizations for a better supply chain management. Following aninterpretive research paradigm, this study employed a post priory inductive research approach and aqualitative research methodology to explore the perspectives of supply chain professionals and academics onthe use of social media in supply chain management (SCM). Primary data was collected through semistructuredinterviews. Thematic analysis was used to derive insights from the interviews with supply chainprofessionals and academics. Results from 10 supply chain professionals suggest that turbulent environmentsincrease a firm’s scanning activities on supply market, while intense competition increases the firm’s scanningon both supply and customer markets via social media. We can expect infusion of social media enabledsensing techniques in upstream as well as downstream of the supply chain. From Environmental sensingpoint of view, we propose that how companies can implement the social media in supply chain management andwhat benefits from social media they can get. While this study provides valuable insights, it has severallimitations. The qualitative nature of the research, with a limited sample size of ten interviewees, may not fullycapture the diverse experiences and perspectives within the industry. The focus on Pakistani companies maylimit the generalizability of the findings to other regions with different technological advancements andcultural contexts. Additionally, the relatively recent adoption of social media in SCM means that long-termeffects and trends were not fully explored. The study primarily relied on self-reported data, which may be subjectto bias. Environmental sensing is a pre requisite for effective reconfiguration and seizing of new opportunitiesin the business environment. Information technology and different market intelligence tools facilitate inenvironmental sensing thus having a transformational role in supply chain management. Similarly,internet and social media also play important role particularly in transforming digital supply chains. Theinformation available on use of social media in supply chain management for improving sensing capabilityis sparse. Therefore, the significance of this research is twofold. First it aims to contribute in the existingtheory and literature by exploring a relatively scarcely researched phenomenon of social media enabledenvironmental sensing for supply chain management. Secondly it aims to develop new courses of actions forpractitioners and policy makers for active integration of social media technology and platforms for improvingsupply chain management.