Editorial for special issue on: humanitarian operations management

Abstract

Over the past decades, there has been increasing interest in studying humanitarian operations management. The mismatch between global humanitarian needs and the resources available, together with chronic vulnerability in many parts of the world, continues to have a direct bearing on the lives of millions of people in need of assistance. It also means that donors have to re-double their efforts to respond to disasters in a more efficient and effective manner. International humanitarian organizations (IHOs) often deal with a mix of disaster response and development programmes simultaneously. This operational mix entails disaster cycle management challenges such as project and programme planning of multi-objective global logistics, balancing earmarked donations for disaster response with budget needs for development programmes, and determining the push-pull boundaries in the supply chain, particularly with the increase in cash transfer programmes. The main purpose of this special issue is to report on research in humanitarian operations management. This special issue attempts to explore and examine the above topical issues at strategic, operational and technical levels.

Keywords:

• Humanitarian operations
• logistics
• resilience
• service operations
• modelling
• supply chain management

Introduction

The special issue seeks to examine humanitarian operations management. A total of 15 papers were accepted into the full review process after desk rejections. All papers were reviewed by at least three referees using a standard double-blind review process. All accepted papers went through at least two revisions and in some cases three revisions. One of the editors was recused from this process when their co-authored paper was reviewed. We are extremely grateful to our colleagues, across all disciplines of operations and supply chain management, who served as referees for this special issue. Their reviews were detailed and incisive, frequently with useful developmental comments. Without their participation, the special issue would not have achieved the high quality it has. The six papers published in this special issue responded to the call for papers.

The basic task of humanitarian operations management comprises acquiring and delivering requested supplies and services, at the places and times they are needed, whilst ensuring best value for money (Heaslip 2016). In the immediate aftermath of any disaster, these supplies include items that are vital for survival, such as food, water, temporary shelter, and medicine, among others. Due to the varied nature of their tasks, Humanitarian Aid (HA) organizations have been described as ‘most agile’ and ‘fully flexible’ (Heaslip, Kovacs, and Haavisto 2018).

Humanitarian operations management is maturing as a discipline, yet many challenges still persist. The fundamental issues for humanitarian operations management can only be addressed when we take a step back to define what it is we are trying to achieve through our research and then considering the means of enacting these objectives. It is also time to share the knowledge now, and I hope that the articles in this issue do what this journal has set out to do, that is, to publish articles that make a difference.

Papers in the special issue

The aim of this special issue is to promote new theoretical, empirical and practitioner research on the developments within the area of humanitarian operations management. The first paper in this special issue entitled ‘Supporting Collaboration in Humanitarian Supply Chains – Insights from a Design Science Project’ by Wagner and Thakur-Weigold, examines coordination in the humanitarian supply chain. coordination and the need for a common logistics operating picture have remained a constant in humanitarian operations research. Challenges to collaborate both within international humanitarian organizations, and among their direct and indirect supply chain partners often contribute to the inefficient use of resources or ineffective operations. The first paper discusses collaboration in humanitarian supply chains, and analyze the causes of their dysfunctional operations. An experiential learning approach is developed that can sensitize humanitarian supply chain actors to causes of information distortion. The simulation approach was implemented in the field and instructional design cycles yielded insights into how staff applies their learnings under the specific conditions of humanitarian relief work.

In ‘The importance of fairness in humanitarian relief distribution’ Anaya-Arenas, Ruiz, and Renaud examine transparency in relief distribution. The paper is inspired by some of the challenges faced by non-governmental organizations in the distribution of humanitarian relief to vulnerable rural communities. This paper discusses the importance of fairness in relief distribution and how it can be defined, especially in a context where the delivery of vital items must be ensured periodically. Performance indicators to measure fairness, are proposed. Finally, an empirical study of an academic case, inspired by a rural aid distribution problem, is used to analyze how different mathematical formulations may contribute in helping crisis managers integrate fairness or equity in their decisions.

The paper ‘Agility and Resilience as antecedents of Supply Chain Performance under moderating effects of Organizational Culture within a Humanitarian Setting: A Dynamic Capability View’ by Altay, Gunasekaran, Dubey, and Childe uses the dynamic capability view to conceptualize a theoretical model for different phases of humanitarian supply chain (pre and post-disaster phases). Partial least squares (PLS) is used to examine the proposed research hypotheses using 335 responses gathered from organizations in India using questionnaires designed for a single respondent. The results suggest that SCAG and SCRES are two important dynamic capabilities of the supply chain, have significant effects on pre-disaster performance (PRE-DP). The control orientation does not have a significant effect on the path joining SCAG and PRE-DP. However, the control orientation has a significant interaction effect on the path joining SCRES and PRE-DP. Similarly, SCRES has a significant effect on post-disaster performance (POST-DP) but SCAG has no significant effect on POST-DP. In contrast, the flexible orientation has significant moderation effects on the paths SCAG/SCRES and POST-DP. These findings contribute to the understanding of the differential effect of SCAG/SCRES on supply chain performance in different contexts. The results provide further understanding to develop appropriate strategies for different phases.

Heaslip, Kovács and Haavisto investigate how cash transfer programmes (CTPs) are revolutionizing humanitarian supply chains (HSCs), in ‘Innovations in humanitarian supply chains: the case of cash transfer programmes’. Innovation in the humanitarian context more often than not stems from outside humanitarian organizations – that is innovation occurs in their supply chain. This paper furthers the understanding of supply chain innovation (SCI) in the humanitarian context. Based on empirical evidence this article suggests a supply chain innovation model (SCIM). This SCIM is useful because it allows different processes to be understood and compared, by providing guidance on how innovations progress.

In ‘Bi-objective multi-resource scheduling problem for emergency relief operations’ by Bodaghi, Ekambaram, and Abbasi presents a bi-objective mixed integer programming (MIP) that helps to minimize both the total weighted time of completion of the demand points and the makespan of the total emergency relief operation. A two-phase method is developed to solve the bi-objective MIP problem. Additionally, a case study of a hospital network in the Melbourne Metropolitan area is used to evaluate the model. The results indicate that the model can successfully support the decisions required in the optimal resource scheduling of emergency relief operations.

The final paper ‘Stockpiling Supplies for Disaster Response: An Experimental Analysis of Prepositioning Biases’ by Goncalves and Castañeda demonstrates how the structure of prepositioning decisions resemble newsvendor decisions and how common newsvendor biases could affect prepositioning performance. To explore prepositioning biases, a behavioral experiment of a prepositioning problem with 20 practitioners from the humanitarian sector was simulated. Results show that, on average, participants pull orders away from optimum (pull-to-center) and follow the prior beneficiary demand realization (demand chasing) regardless of cost and criticality conditions. However, the estimation of behavioral models reveals patterns hidden in averages, showing that participants weigh undersupply costs more for urgent supplies and urgency moderates demand chasing. A follow-up validation experiment manipulates the salience of urgent supplies by bundling them with non-urgent supplies in a portfolio. Results show that the portfolio strengthens these patterns, increasing the availability of urgent supplies. We offer practice implications of these findings for prepositioning activities and theory implications for inventory experiments in general.

Closing comment

The graphic images broadcast to the living rooms of disasters open the wallets of individuals and governments. Humanitarian operations are big business and the number of HA organizations is growing. Unfortunately, disaster relief is, and will continue to be, a growth market (Heaslip 2016). Traditionally, climate change, population trends and urbanization have been identified as challenges but recently, security of the humanitarian community, migration, and pandemics can be included (Kovacs 2018).

Determining effective relationships and governance between humanitarian, development and civil society-building efforts is an area that is often ignored in humanitarian operations research (Heaslip and Kovacs 2018). Similarly, the rise of social media, particularly beneficiary-to-beneficiary delivery of aid, the use of the ex-pat community for funding and the sharing economy have been largely ignored in humanitarian operations research. Research in technology innovations whether it is drones, 3D printing or cash transfer is becoming more popular (Tatham, Heaslip, and Spens 2018).

Service development has become the norm in humanitarian logistics (Heaslip 2015). The provision of services has now turned into a conscious and explicit strategy with services becoming a main competitive differentiating factor in totally integrated products and service offering. This area of the product-service mix has rarely been examined in the context of humanitarian operations and may provide scholars with opportunities to revise the product-service model. Services provision plays a crucial role for new product introduction such as cash transfer programmes providing a new product creation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Graham Heaslip

Graham Heaslip is a Professor of Logistics and Head of the School of Business at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), Ireland. Prior to joining GMIT, Graham was an Associate Professor of Logistics at UNSW, Australia where he was the course director of the MSc in Logistics. Graham completed his PhD studies in the area of Civil Military Cooperation/Coordination at the Logistics Institute, University of Hull, for which he was awarded the James Cooper Memorial Cup for best PhD in Logistics and Supply Chain Management by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. Prior to entering academia Graham spent fourteen years working in the Irish Defence Forces both at home and abroad in a variety of logistical appointments, as well as spending time seconded to Humanitarian agencies in a logistical capacity. Graham’s research interests are broadly in the intersections between global logistics/supply chain management, humanitarian logistics and organizational management development.