Information Sharing in the Supply Chain: An Exploratory Study

Purpose
The purpose is to explore if a potential gap exists between information sharing as recommended in academic literature and the information actually shared among companies and their supply chain partners.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an extensive literature review to structure the terminology for information sharing in supply chains and an in-depth interview study to explore what data, information and knowledge companies are sharing in supply chains. The empirical findings are compared with theory using content analysis.

Findings
First, the study indicates that information sharing in the extended supply chain (three or more organizations) is scarce. Second, actual information sharing is primarily dyadic and focused on information (rather than data or knowledge) at the operational level. Third, there is a lack of empirical research in this area of supply chain management and existing guidelines for information sharing are vague and general in nature. Thus, there is a need for more research to develop frameworks for information sharing in supply chains.

Research limitations
This study focuses on what data, information and knowledge companies share and with whom in supply chains. Future research could investigate how/why information is shared between companies, and explore differences between different categories of supply chains.

Practical implications
The result is a first step towards developing a realistic and applied framework for information sharing in the supply chain.

Originality/value
This paper contributes to literature by structuring the terminology for information sharing; defining an information sharing matrix which can be applied in future research; and pointing out a potential gap between theory and practice.