Employee and Customer Information Privacy Concerns in Supply Chain Management

Abstract

AbstractRetail order fulfillment is a major supply chain management process. The process is complex to manage because of increases in e-commerce activity, which compels retailers to respond by developing omnichannel retailing strategies to serve both online and in-store retail in an integrated manner. Retailers and the logistics service providers that serve them must effectively manage this increased complexity to gain a competitive advantage in retail markets. Market leaders have done so by leveraging advanced technologies and data analytics in the order fulfillment operations of their supply chains. The adoption of these technologies has led to both an increase in customer service levels and operating efficiency gains for retailers. Because of their data gathering and dissemination capabilities, however, the implementation of these technologies has conjured concern amongst retail fulfillment operations employees and retail customers alike. Given this reality, we organized this chapter around three objectives. First, we provide an overview of supply chain management, and the logistics management and order fulfillment processes within it. Second, we detail why retail fulfillment operations represent a context replete with potential privacy-related issues resulting from the pervasive use of highly advanced technologies capable of collecting data on both human subjects and operational processes. Third, we discuss two highly salient forms of privacy in retail fulfillment operations, workplace privacy and information privacy, from the perspective of two stakeholder groups, employees and customers. We identify and survey the concepts, factors, and variables drawn from extant research that explain, describe, and challenge aspects of both employee and customer privacy concerns during order fulfillment operations in omnichannel retailing.