Abstract
With the frequency and magnitude of disasters on the rise, millions of people suffer huge losses every year. Scholars have recently proposed various frameworks in disaster relief management in order to guide the research in this field. Although successful disaster relief requires the entire humanitarian supply chain to respond in harmony, it is surprising that there exists no humanitarian relief framework drawn from the perspective of supply chain management. In this article, we create a new research framework for Humanitarian Supply Chain Management (HSCM) that is complimentary but distinct from commercial supply chain management (CSCM) frameworks. The framework we developed offers a new lens for humanitarian researchers. We also conduct a systematic literature review in this field and identify some opportunities for future research. The results strongly suggest the need for additional empirical research to test the existing concepts and models. Second, there is evidence that research focusing on “upstream” relief chain has been neglected relative to “downstream”. Additionally, due to its rapid advancement, information technology related research opportunities in this field would always be there.
Highlights
Using the paradigms of existing frameworks for commercial supply chain management (CSCM) and borrowing from the framework proposed by Mentzer et al (2001), we develop a framework for humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) with an intention to capture characteristics of both disaster relief management and humanitarian development aid management
Our review of literature in humanitarian supply chains suggests that more research is still needed in some areas/methodologies in recent years the research in this arena has gained significant momentum
A number of theories or methodologies or techniques from other areas have been successfully used by HSCM scholars, many of these are purely conceptual with 108 (37%) using analytical research but little empirical examination
Summary
A new dedicated journal -‐ Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management – started in 2011 and the number of articles published in a variety of academic outlets has been increasing as well. Despite this positive trend, not all areas in disaster relief receive attention and more application of supply chain management thinking is required in humanitarian operations and disaster relief (Galindo and Batta, 2013). We develop a new humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) framework and survey the relevant literature to identify these under-‐researched areas. The surveyed literature is analyzed using the newly developed framework and we conclude by providing future research directions
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