Understanding information sharing in the supply chain: theoretical perspectives

Purpose
To explore what theoretical lenses have been used to analyze and understand information sharing in supply chains. We elaborate on the predominant theories and discuss how they can be used to research different aspects of information sharing.

Design/methodology/approach
We carried out a structured literature review by using a combination of selected keywords to search for peer-reviewed articles in ten journals.

Findings
Only a third of the reviewed articles explicitly apply one or more theoretical lenses. The predominant theories used to research information sharing include Transaction Cost Economics, Contingency Theory, Resource Based View, Resource Dependency Theory and Relational View.

Research implications
These theories can be applied to analyze different aspects of information sharing. By using the theories in a complimentary way it is possible to increase our understanding of information sharing between companies related to: why and what information to share with whom, how to share and the impact of antecedents, barriers and drivers.

Original/value
This literature review highlights the potential of applying theoretical perspectives to research information sharing. The review covers a large set of articles and puts forward five theories that should be emphasized in future research.