Information Technology, Mutual Trust, Flexibility, Agility, Adaptability: Understanding Their Linkages and Impact on Humanitarian Supply Chain Management Performance

Abstract

The increase in the occurrence of natural disasters worldwide is of growing concern for the social and economic development of the countries involved. Disasters are unavoidable but actions can be taken to mitigate the impact of disaster on the country concerned. The efficiency of disaster relief operations cannot be enhanced as a whole; the organizations involved in the process of disaster management process should adjust, modify and reconfigure their supply chains in order to improve the performance of the humanitarian supply chain (HSC). Empirical research into the context of HSC which explores the relationship between critical factors to humanitarian supply chain management performance is often limited. Hence, this study aims to investigate the relationships among information technology (IT) utilization, mutual trust, agility, flexibility, adaptability, and performance in the context of the humanitarian supply chain. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from the respondents involved in the relief operations of the disaster that occurred in Uttarakhand (a Northern state in India) on June 13, 2013 to test the aforementioned relationship. This study indicates that the agility and flexibility of the organizations involved in a HSC are associated with the utilization of IT, which in turn is associated with the performance.