Modeling information risk in supply chain using Bayesian networks

Purpose – Information sharing enhances the supply chain profitability significantly, but it may result in adverse impacts also (e.g. leakages of secret information to competitors, sharing of wrong information that result into losses). So, it is important to understand the various risk factors that lead to distortion in information sharing and results in negative consequences. Information risk identification and assessment in supply chain would help in choosing right mitigation strategies. The purpose of this paper is to identify various information risks that could impact a supply chain, and develop a conceptual framework to quantify them. Design/methodology/approach – Bayesian belief network (BBN) modeling will be used to provide a framework for information risk analysis in a supply chain. Bayesian methodology provides the reasoning in causal relationship among various risk factors and incorporates both objective and subjective data. Findings – This paper presents a causal relationship among various information risks in a supply chain. Three important risk factors, namely, information security, information leakages and reluctance toward information sharing showed influence on a company’s revenue. Practical implications – Capability of Bayesian networks while modeling in uncertain conditions, provides a prefect platform for analyzing the risk factors. BBN provides a more robust method for studying the impact or predicting various risk factors. Originality/value – The major contribution of this paper is to develop a quantitative model for information risks in supply chain. This model can be updated when a new data arrives.