Local resources and procurement practices in humanitarian supply chains:an empirical examination of large-scale house reconstruction projects

Different procurement decisions taken by relief organizations can result in considerably different implications in regards to transport, storage, and distribution of humanitarian aid and ultimately can influence the performance of the humanitarian supply chain and the delivery of the humanitarian aid. In this article, we look into what resources are needed and how these resources evolve in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we develop a framework to categorize the impact of local resources on the configuration of humanitarian supply chains. In contrast to other papers, the importance of localizing the configuration of the humanitarian supply chain is not only conceptually recognized, but empirical investigations are also provided. In terms of methodology, this article is based on the analysis of secondary data from two housing reconstruction projects. Findings indicate that the use of local resources in humanitarian aid has positive effects on programs' overall supply chain performance and these effects are not only related to the macroeconomic perspective, but benefits expand to improvements related to the use of knowledge. At the same time, it was found that local sourcing often comes with a number of problems. For example, in one of the cases, significant problems existed, which were related to the scarcity of local supplies. Both housing reconstruction projects have indicated the continuous need for changes throughout the programs as a dynamic supply chain configuration is important for the long-term sustainability of reconstruction aid

Pre-positioning of relief items under road/facility vulnerability with concurrent restoration and relief transportation

Planning for response to sudden-onset disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods needs to take into account the inherent uncertainties regarding the disaster and its impacts on the affected people as well as the logistics network. This article focuses on the design of a multi-echelon humanitarian response network, where the pre-disaster decisions of warehouse location and item pre-positioning are subject to uncertainties in relief item demand and vulnerability of roads and facilities following the disaster. Once the disaster strikes, relief transportation is accompanied by simultaneous repair of blocked roads, which delays the transportation process, but gradually increases the connectivity of the network at the same time. A two-stage stochastic program is formulated to model this system and a Sample Average Approximation (SAA) scheme is proposed for its heuristic solution. To enhance the efficiency of the SAA algorithm, we introduce a number of valid inequalities and bounds on the objective value. Computational experiments on a potential earthquake scenario in Istanbul, Turkey show that the SAA scheme is able to provide an accurate approximation of the objective function in reasonable time, and can help drive policy-based implications that may be applicable in preparation for similar potential disaster

A review of lean and agile management in humanitarian supply chains: analysing the pre-disaster and post-disaster phases and future directions

Disasters have quadrupled over the last two decades leading to unprecedented loss of life. The objective of disaster-focussed humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) is to ensure saving maximum lives with limited resources; despite severe uncertainties. Therefore, significant research has investigated lean and agile in HSCs; to effectively source and speedily deploy resources, with minimum wastage; in each disaster life-cycle phase. However, the literature and research findings are currently highly disjointed regarding how lean and agile principles may be aligned with different HSC activities in the disaster management lifecycle; and do not provide a collective understanding for practitioners and researchers. This paper reviews and organises the literature on HSCs in relation to lean and agile paradigms, focussing on the pre-disaster (mitigation and preparedness) and post-disaster (response and recovery) phases. Findings reveal, all phases benefit from both lean and agile, with agile benefitting the response phase most. The phases are inter-dependent and identifying optimum decoupling points for lean and agile principles are crucial. Majority research has focussed on individual or a couple of phases. Therefore, authors recommend research on integrating the functions of the different phases by employing lean and agile principles, to generate rapid response, economies of scale and cost minimisation

Coordination, cooperation and collaboration in relief supply chain management

In recent years, an increasing number of natural and man-made disasters has demonstrated that a working relief supply chain management (RSCM) is crucial in order to alleviate the suffering of the affected population. Coordination, cooperation and collaboration within RSCM is essential for overcoming these destructive incidents. This paper explores the research undertaken in recent years, focusing on coordination, cooperation and collaboration in the field of supply chain management (SCM) and RSCM in order to provide unique definitions of these concepts taking the disaster setting into consideration. A systematic literature review including 202 academic papers published from 1996 onwards in top journals dealing with commercial supply and relief supply chain coordination, cooperation and collaboration is applied. In order to answer the underlying research questions in a proper way, a descriptive analysis and qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the papers are conducted. Descriptive results indicate that RSCM coordination, cooperation and collaboration have increasingly shifted into the focus of scientific research since 2001/2004 (i.e., 9/11 and the Indian Ocean Tsunami). Based on the qualitative content analysis, clear definitions of the terms coordination, cooperation and collaboration in SCM and RSCM were elaborated. The research landscape, as a result of the quantitative content analysis, allowed the identification of three issues that need to be addressed in future research work

Sustainable humanitarian supply chains: a systematic literature review and research propositions

The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesise the body of knowledge related to sustainable humanitarian supply chains across disaster relief as well as those of logistics of development aid. The output of this paper is a set of research propositions that will help advance theory building and validation for the management of sustainable humanitarian supply chains. This systematic review identifies and categorises sustainable humanitarian supply chain management (SHSCM) themes, with a particular emphasis on theoretical development based on a categorical analysis of research articles. The thematic analysis reveals that sustainability in humanitarian supply chains encompasses a wide range of aspects, such as supply network configuration, coordination, and partnership, as well as performance measurement. However, theoretical studies typically do not integrate all sustainability dimensions. In particular, social sustainability factors are largely absent from current models of SHSCM, despite their inherent significance in humanitarian contexts. The categorical analysis explains how aspects related to the identified themes impact and pose opportunities for SHSCM. Insights from this systematic review can support humanitarian supply chain sustainability knowledge with policy-driven research directions. These policies can help achieve a greater level of sustainability in humanitarian supply chain management. The originality of this study lies in the development of detailed categories of sustainability studies, in its analytical focus on SHSCM theories, and in the development of research propositions to provide insights to researchers on how to advance theory and conduct impactful research on the topic of SHSCM

Disaster preparedness using risk-assessment methods from earthquake engineering

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Analyzing the uncertainties associated with disaster occurrences is critical to make effective disaster preparedness plans. In this study, we focus on pre-positioning emergency supplies for earthquake preparedness. We present a new method to compute earthquake likelihood and the number of the affected people. Our approach utilizes forecasting methods from the earthquake engineering literature, and avoids using probabilistic scenarios to represent the uncertainties related to earthquake occurrences. We validate the proposed technique by using historical earthquake data from Turkey, a country under significant earthquake risk. We also present a case study that illustrates the implementation of our method to solve the inventory allocation problem of the Turkish Red Crescen

Application of a Blockchain Enabled Model in Disaster Aids Supply Network Resilience

The disaster area is a dynamic environment. The bottleneck in distributing the supplies may be from the damaged infrastructure or the unavailability of accurate information about the required amounts. The success of the disaster response network is based on collaboration, coordination, sovereignty, and equality in relief distribution. Therefore, a reliable dynamic communication system is required to facilitate the interactions, enhance the knowledge for the relief operation, prioritize, and coordinate the goods distribution. One of the promising innovative technologies is blockchain technology which enables transparent, secure, and real-time information exchange and automation through smart contracts. This study analyzes the application of blockchain technology on disaster management resilience. The influences of this most promising application on the disaster aid supply network resilience combined with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS) algorithm are explored employing a network-based simulation. The theoretical analysis reveals an advancement in disaster-aids supply network strategies using smart contracts for collaborations. The simulation study indicates an enhance in resilience by improvement in collaboration and communication due to more time-efficient processing for disaster supply management. From the investigations, insights have been derived for researchers in the field and the managers interested in practical implementation

Supporting Humanitarian Relief Distribution Decision-Making under Deep Uncertainty : A System Design Approach

With respect to copyright, all the papers were excluded from the dissertation.Disasters threaten society with widespread destruction of infrastructure and livelihood. For their survival, affected inhabitants depend on immediate humanitarian assistance from diverse organizations. During quick responses, humanitarian decision- makers (HDMs) act rapidly to distribute necessary relief goods, despite the deep, prevailing uncertainty that arises from scarce, conflicting, and uncertain information. To support HDMs in humanitarian relief distribution (HRD) decision-making, humanitarian logistics (HL) researchers have developed various mathematical models. These models are, however, specific to disaster scenarios, and most of them are detached from the realities of the field since end-users (mainly practitioners) have been absent in the development process. When tested, these decision-making models were found to be capable of producing good results, but they have not been implemented in practice because of operational inconsistency or complexity (i.e., lack of user-friendliness). Therefore, humanitarian responders are still in need of support systems to assist them in determining effective HRD. A computer-based decision support system (DSS) can fill this need by providing necessary recommendations and suggesting decision alternatives. Hence, developing such DSSs is always the priority in HL.publishedVersio

Essays Examining Humanitarian Supply Chains: Investigating Operational Characteristics, Activities, and Performance

As the frequency and severity of disasters continue to increase, the need for collaboration amongst all humanitarian stakeholders in humanitarian supply chain activities during all aspects of the disaster cycle has become more critical to the success of relief operations. Humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are voluntary organizations operating in highly dynamic and chaotic environments to provide aid to people in need. But as the impact of disaster increases and the funding becomes more limited and competitive, they face mounting pressures from stakeholders to improve the quality of their operations. Similarly, private organizations are also under higher levels of scrutiny to become more socially responsible. In response, literature has turned to service operations and corporate social responsibility research, focusing on customer service and integration improvements as a path toward more effective disaster relief outcomes. Therefore, this dissertation aims to build upon this humanitarian service research stream. This dissertation examines how the humanitarian supply chain\u27s operational characteristics affect the workforce and community integrative behaviors, operational activities in the wake of disasters, and collaborative efforts between relief actors. Essay 1 employs approach-avoidance theory to examine the effects of trauma exposure on aid worker behaviors and supply chain integration activities. It also examines the moderating effects of various forms of supervisor support. Utilizing a scenario-based vignette experiment, results indicate that trauma exposure induces both approach and avoidance behaviors. As such, it simultaneously hinders cooperative commitment and improves organizational commitment among aid workers. Furthermore, we find that supervisor support strengthens these relationships. As such, this study contributes to disaster management, integration, and leadership literature streams. It highlights environmental mechanisms to aid worker integrative behaviors and provides decision-making guidance to NGOs regarding where to direct support investments. Essay 2 combines religion with volunteer management. It employs both social capital and person-organization fit theory to examine the effects of NGO religiousness and volunteer religious fit, on volunteer behaviors and operational performance. Utilizing two scenario-based video experiments, results indicate that NGO religiousness lessens social capital, negatively impacting volunteer behaviors and operational performance. Conversely, when NGOs and volunteers experience religious fit, it helps to minimize the negative effects of NGO religiousness and improve their operational performance. As such, this study contributes to the Humanitarian Operations literature by advising strategy around religious alignment and volunteer behaviors, retention, and operational performance. Essay 3 focuses on the vital role of private organizations in disaster relief and the importance of private-NGO collaboration. Employing resource dependence and matching theory, it examines mechanisms of private organization attitudes toward private-NGO partnerships. It also examines how the influence of these mechanisms may differ across disaster relief stages. Utilizing a scenario-based vignette experiment, results indicate that NGO resource capabilities motivate private organizations and their willingness to engage in private-NGO partnerships. As such, this study contributes to the private-NGO partnership literature and informs NGOs’ strategy around private organization motivations, decision-making, and alliance formation. This dissertation produces insights across the humanitarian supply chain, informing important curiosities involving NGOs, private organizations, aid workers, and the customers/communities they serve

Essays Examining Humanitarian Supply Chains: Investigating Operational Characteristics, Activities, and Performance

As the frequency and severity of disasters continue to increase, the need for collaboration amongst all humanitarian stakeholders in humanitarian supply chain activities during all aspects of the disaster cycle has become more critical to the success of relief operations. Humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are voluntary organizations operating in highly dynamic and chaotic environments to provide aid to people in need. But as the impact of disaster increases and the funding becomes more limited and competitive, they face mounting pressures from stakeholders to improve the quality of their operations. Similarly, private organizations are also under higher levels of scrutiny to become more socially responsible. In response, literature has turned to service operations and corporate social responsibility research, focusing on customer service and integration improvements as a path toward more effective disaster relief outcomes. Therefore, this dissertation aims to build upon this humanitarian service research stream. This dissertation examines how the humanitarian supply chain\u27s operational characteristics affect the workforce and community integrative behaviors, operational activities in the wake of disasters, and collaborative efforts between relief actors. Essay 1 employs approach-avoidance theory to examine the effects of trauma exposure on aid worker behaviors and supply chain integration activities. It also examines the moderating effects of various forms of supervisor support. Utilizing a scenario-based vignette experiment, results indicate that trauma exposure induces both approach and avoidance behaviors. As such, it simultaneously hinders cooperative commitment and improves organizational commitment among aid workers. Furthermore, we find that supervisor support strengthens these relationships. As such, this study contributes to disaster management, integration, and leadership literature streams. It highlights environmental mechanisms to aid worker integrative behaviors and provides decision-making guidance to NGOs regarding where to direct support investments. Essay 2 combines religion with volunteer management. It employs both social capital and person-organization fit theory to examine the effects of NGO religiousness and volunteer religious fit, on volunteer behaviors and operational performance. Utilizing two scenario-based video experiments, results indicate that NGO religiousness lessens social capital, negatively impacting volunteer behaviors and operational performance. Conversely, when NGOs and volunteers experience religious fit, it helps to minimize the negative effects of NGO religiousness and improve their operational performance. As such, this study contributes to the Humanitarian Operations literature by advising strategy around religious alignment and volunteer behaviors, retention, and operational performance. Essay 3 focuses on the vital role of private organizations in disaster relief and the importance of private-NGO collaboration. Employing resource dependence and matching theory, it examines mechanisms of private organization attitudes toward private-NGO partnerships. It also examines how the influence of these mechanisms may differ across disaster relief stages. Utilizing a scenario-based vignette experiment, results indicate that NGO resource capabilities motivate private organizations and their willingness to engage in private-NGO partnerships. As such, this study contributes to the private-NGO partnership literature and informs NGOs’ strategy around private organization motivations, decision-making, and alliance formation. This dissertation produces insights across the humanitarian supply chain, informing important curiosities involving NGOs, private organizations, aid workers, and the customers/communities they serve