Hybrid modeling approach to market deployment planning: an application to a natural disaster relief supply business venture

Abstract

In today’s fast-paced global economy, entrepreneurs increasingly tend to holistically design their business ventures during the early stages of business creation. This tendency highlights the need for an efficient and systematic approach to market deployment planning due to the dynamic and complex nature of current markets and the evolving significance of global strategic positioning. Traditional market expansion planning is no longer adequate for fast-paced contexts. This paper introduces a hybrid modelling approach in order to develop a market deployment roadmap. Based on market pertinent databases, the proposed approach uses self-organising maps for market clustering and an optimisation model for market deployment road mapping within each cluster. The approach is illustrated through its application to market deployment road mapping for a business venture specialising in natural disaster supply relief. Dealing with real case studies with exploiting the vast database have not received much attention in disaster relief planning context. Hence, this study provides a novel contribution to humanitarian relief planning considering the role of the business ventures in relief operation and their business model simultaneously.

Keywords:

• market deployment
• global optimisation
• clustering
• natural disasters
• relief planning
• new business venture