Using social network analysis to combat counterfeiting

Abstract

Counterfeiting undoubtedly produces great harm to companies and the society. This article presents a study on the application of social network analysis (SNA) to combating this problem. The supply chain can be viewed as a network of parties involved in delivering value to consumers. Normally, SNA is used to analyse relationships between people. In this study, it is utilised to analyse supply chains for the identification of parties that are likely to be involved in counterfeiting activities. After identifying the suspects in a supply chain, the company can deter and detect counterfeiting by tightening surveillance on these parties. The feasibility of using SNA as an anti-counterfeiting tool is investigated in a case study, the findings of which indicate that SNA can effectively help companies to prevent sources of counterfeit products from infiltrating into the supply chain. Problematic parties can be identified by characterising the following features: high degree of centrality, high closeness of centrality and high betweenness of centrality.

Keywords:

• anti-counterfeiting
• RFID
• social network analysis
• supply chain management

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully thank the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for its support of this research work.