The Potential of Social Media in Emerging Supply Chain Management

2. Literature Review

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are undoubtedly useful for businesses. However, testing new ICTs is not always cost effective (Badsi et al., 2017). The massive amount of data now available raises the question of how companies can make efficient use of what lies behind their business processes. Interactions between IT and business structures within the organization would appear to be necessary. Big Data and Analytics have become key concepts within the corporate world, both commercially and from an information technology (IT) perspective. The intersection of business and technology is very important (Krimpmann and Stühmeier, 2017).

Supply chain integration has become a major challenge for companies in the current context. Information sharing and collaboration improve supply chain flexibility, tractability, and efficiency. Several studies have demonstrated that the positive and the significant relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance. Other studies have focused on the factors that affect this relationship (Mohamed and Hassan, 2019). In the face of today’s highly competitive and global markets, manufacturing enterprises no longer operate as independent entities, but rather as multi-site supply chain (Felfel, Ayadi, and Masmoudi, 2017).

In light of digital transformation, many firms try to increase the agility of their innovation processes. In this regard, they particularly rely on design thinking or on the lean startup approach to reduce some of the deficits of established innovation processes (Lichtenthaler, 2020). Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) is a complex and costly process that is usually accompanied with serious risks. Numerous research projects have been conducted to illuminate ERP Critical Success Factors (CSFs) so as to identify the main factors in enhancing success rate. Project managers’ skills of ERP system implementation projects are viewed as one of the most effective factors in the success of such projects (Amalnik and Ravasan, 2018).