Title: Social media users' perspectives on the supply chain: positivity amongst negativity during COVID-19 panic buying in Australia

Authors: Violetta Wilk; Saiyidi Mat Roni; Ferry Jie

Addresses: School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, 6027, Western Australia, Perth, Australia ' School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, 6027, Western Australia, Perth, Australia ' School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, 6027, Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Abstract: This study explored Australian social media users' perspectives on the supply chain disruption during the COVID-19 crisis. It examined user-generated content (UGC) through the lens of Social Network Theory and Drive Theory. We harvested 91,105 publicly available Twitter posts originating in Australia, from February 2020 to April 2020, that contained #coronavirus (hashtag) and supply (keyword). The big data were analysed with Leximancer, which enabled text-mining and data visualisation. Supply chain concerns were dominant in UGC about supply during the pandemic. Interestingly, social media users were also able to identify positivity during the crisis, and presented rationales and justifications, along with defence and solutions to supply chain disruption. Supply chain management (SCM) organisations should work with social media users who are able to steer the online narrative and, as a result, foster positivity, deter panic and negativity during a crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19; crisis; supply chain; disruption; social media; big data; social network; Leximancer; virtual tribes; consumer tribes; digital tribes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2023.130839

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2023 Vol.16 No.2, pp.262 - 287

Received: 04 Dec 2020
Accepted: 25 Nov 2021
Published online: 12 May 2023 *

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