Improved coordination during disaster relief operations through sharing of resources

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on coordination dynamics between nonprofit organisations in the short-term, nonprofit, and competitive settings in disaster relief operations. Sharing resources across organisations can be a key to better coordination. Thus, we tested the link between resource sharing, aspects impacting resource sharing, and operational performance of the organisations using 101 data points. Data was collected through a survey from humanitarian organisations within the Southeast Asian region and was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) approach. The results show that resource sharing can improve organisational performance in this horizontal and competitive context, and that complementarity of resources between organisations increases their willingness to share resources. Complementarity of resources can also improve the interdependencies between organisations, which is not perceived very highly in the current highly competitive settings.

Keywords:

• Inter-organisational coordination
• networks
• resource sharing
• interdependence
• humanitarian logistics