Startups and the usage of Social Media for co-innovation

Abstract

Sustainable development is dependent on significant improvement in supply chain resource utilization and efficiency. It requires a holistic Product Life Cycle (PLC) perspective from producer to end consumer. This perspective includes to reduce waste, to reuse and recycle materials, and to extend the PLC through remanufacturing, resulting in a closed-loop supply chain. These aspects become more relevant in the context of Industry 4.0, which brings many emergent technologies to support digital transformation, value co-creation, and propel operational excellence. The use of Social Media (SM) in the Industry 4.0 context has the potential to transform traditional linear supply chains to closed-loop ones. This might be possible since SM are being used to support PLC phases and connect stakeholders throughout the value chain. Having all players connected offers the opportunity to co-innovate in different perspectives: product, process and business model. Co-innovation is a new paradigm in the field of value creation; it can be argued that innovation is derived by integrating external and internal resources to generate co-creation of value. This paper aims to investigate how Social Medias are being used to support the co-innovation and new product development on startups in the perspective of closed-loop supply chain and Industry 4.0. To better comprehend the usage of SM, we conducted a systematic literature review to study which SM tools are being used in each phase of the PLC. We selected 127 articles published between 2005 and 2018, which match our criteria mentioning at least one phase of PLC and a SM platform used to support at least one of them. Our findings highlighted significant trends in academic literature. Most of the studies focus on the earlier phases of the PLC, which is planning and imagination, introduction and definition, and growth and realization. Ten papers pointed out the usage of SM to support the retirement and recycling phases and no mentions about closed-loop supply chain. SM has been adopted to support idea generation, co-creation, open innovation, crowdsourcing, new product development, marketing strategies, and product launch. These aspects were analyzed by academics mostly in large companies, but seldom in SME's. Only four papers discussed SM and PLC in a startup context. These findings showed us three main gaps in the literature: (1) how are startups using SM in their PLC processes? (2) how are companies using SM to support the tasks of the mature, declining and retiring phases? and (3) how can social media support the integration of the stakeholders to generate a closed-loop supply chain? Our findings and understanding allowed us to better define the next phases of this project. We are conducting an exploratory case study via semi-directed interviews to collect data from four startups. These startups are participating in an open innovation program sponsored by a large multinational company that is looking for co-innovative initiatives using rejects from their iron mining processes. Our literature review helped us to identify and define efforts and new ways to use SM in startup's co-innovation process.

Full text

3rd International Symposium on Supply Chain 4.0: Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Transformation,
Intelligent Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management 4.0,
ISSC4 - 2019, October 24-28th, Indianapolis, USA.
Startups and the usage of Social Media for co-innovation
Anna Laura Almeida 1, Elaine Mosconi 2, Jeremi Roch 2, Leandro Feitosa Jorge 2
1 Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
2 Université de Sherbroke, Sherbrooke, Canada
{anna.almeida@aluno.ufop.edu.br, elaine.mosconi@usherbrooke.ca, jeremi.roch@usherbrooke.ca,
leandro.feitosa.jorge@usherbrooke.ca}
Abstract: Sustainable development is dependent on significant improvement in supply chain resource
utilization and efficiency. It requires a holistic Product Life Cycle (PLC) perspective from producer to
end consumer. This perspective includes to reduce waste, to reuse and recycle materials, and to extend
the PLC through remanufacturing, resulting in a closed-loop supply chain. These aspects become more
relevant in the context of Industry 4.0, which brings many emergent technologies to support digital
transformation, value co-creation, and propel operational excellence. The use of Social Media (SM) in
the Industry 4.0 context has the potential to transform traditional linear supply chains to closed-loop
ones. This might be possible since SM are being used to support PLC phases and connect stakeholders
throughout the value chain. Having all players connected offers the opportunity to co-innovate in
different perspectives: product, process and business model. Co-innovation is a new paradigm in the
field of value creation; it can be argued that innovation is derived by integrating external and internal
resources to generate co-creation of value. This paper aims to investigate how Social Medias are being
used to support the co-innovation and new product development on startups in the perspective of closed-
loop supply chain and Industry 4.0. To better comprehend the usage of SM, we conducted a systematic
literature review to study which SM tools are being used in each phase of the PLC. We selected 127
articles published between 2005 and 2018, which match our criteria mentioning at least one phase of
PLC and a SM platform used to support at least one of them. Our findings highlighted significant trends
in academic literature. Most of the studies focus on the earlier phases of the PLC, which is planning
and imagination, introduction and definition, and growth and realization. Ten papers pointed out the
usage of SM to support the retirement and recycling phases and no mentions about closed-loop supply
chain. SM has been adopted to support idea generation, co-creation, open innovation, crowdsourcing,
new product development, marketing strategies, and product launch. These aspects were analyzed by
academics mostly in large companies, but seldom in SME’s. Only four papers discussed SM and PLC
in a startup context. These findings showed us three main gaps in the literature: (1) how are startups
using SM in their PLC processes? (2) how are companies using SM to support the tasks of the mature,
declining and retiring phases? and (3) how can social media support the integration of the stakeholders
to generate a closed-loop supply chain? Our findings and understanding allowed us to better define the
next phases of this project. We are conducting an exploratory case study via semi-directed interviews
to collect data from four startups. These startups are participating in an open innovation program
sponsored by a large multinational company that is looking for co-innovative initiatives using rejects
from their iron mining processes. Our literature review helped us to identify and define efforts and new
ways to use SM in startup’s co-innovation process.
Keywords: Social Media, Co-innovation, New Product Development, Startups, Closed-loop Supply
Chain, Industry 4.0