Mitigating the risk of information leakage in a two-level supply chain through optimal supplier selection

Abstract

Information leakage in supply chains is drawing more and more attention in supply chain management. Unlike existing research, which usually focuses on the effect of information leakage on the supply chain's material and information flow, this paper aims to evaluate and mitigate the risk of information leakage. First, we formulate the problem of information leakage caused by inferences in a two-level supply chain where potential competition may exist between a supplier and the manufacturer. Second, we propose a method to mitigate the risk of such information leakage through optimal supplier selection. An example is used to demonstrate the problem and our proposed approach.