The Potential of Social Media

Abstract

Social media has become a significant part of most of our lives, however, with limited insight available of how it can be utilized in supply management. This chapter fills this gap and reports on the results of a large-scale study investigating the use of social media within a procurement context. Specifically, an overview will be provided on what types of social media applications are primarily utilized, as well as how social media is used (i.e. about whom information is sought or with whom connections are established). Answers are provided to why social media is not used more often in procurement, with a major section then outlining some avenues of how the power of social media can be leveraged for supply management specifically, and for overall business performance in general.