Social Media Analytics in Food Innovation and Production: a Review

Abstract

Until recently social media and social media analytics (SMA) were basically used only for communication and marketing purposes. However, thanks to advances in digital technologies and big data analytics, potential applications of SMA extend now to production processes and overall business management. As a result, SMA has become an important tool for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage across various sectors, industries and end-markets. Yet, the food industry still lags behind when it comes to the use of digital technologies and advanced data analytics. A part of the explanation lies in the limited knowledge of potential applications of SMA in food innovation and production. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of literature on possible uses of SMA in the food industry sector and to discuss both the benefits, risks, and limitations of SMA in food innovation and production. Based on the literature review, it is concluded that mining social media data for insights can create significant business value for the food industry enterprises and food service sector organizations. On the other hand, many proposals for using SMA in the food domain still await direct experimental tests. More research and insights concerning risks and limitations of SMA in the food sector would be also needed. The issue of responsible data analytics as part of Corporate Digital Responsibility and Corporate Social Responsibility of enterprises using social media data for food innovation and production also requires a greater attention.