An Interdisciplinary Survey on Information Flows in Supply Chains

Jan Pennekamp, Roman Matzutt, Christopher Klinkmüller, Lennart Bader, Martin Serror, Eric Wagner, Sidra Malik, Maria Spiß, Jessica Rahn, Tan Gürpinar, Eduard Vlad, Sander J. J. Leemans, Salil S. Kanhere, Volker Stich, Klaus Wehrle

Supply chains form the backbone of modern economies and therefore require reliable information flows. In practice, however, supply chains face severe technical challenges, especially regarding security and privacy. In this work, we consolidate studies from supply chain management, information systems, and computer science from 2010–2021 in an interdisciplinary meta-survey to make this topic holistically accessible to interdisciplinary research. In particular, we identify a significant potential for computer scientists to remedy technical challenges and improve the robustness of information flows. We subsequently present a concise information flow-focused taxonomy for supply chains before discussing future research directions to provide possible entry points.