The application of structural holes theory to supply chain network information flow analysis

Abstract

This study used Honda supply chain as an illustrative case based on the social network perspective. We firstly examined the extent of structural holes of the chain members and then applied a heuristic approach to alleviate structural holes effects. Two important results were obtained as follows: (1) Many structural holes during the network structure for Honda supply chain because those members do not have many connections with each other. (2) A heuristic based on bridge-building concept was proposed to effectively resolve the structural holes problem of Honda supply chain. © 2011 Asian Network for Scientific Information.