Paper info: Strategy Development in Humanitarian Logistics: The Role of Commercial Logistics Service Providers
Title
Strategy Development in Humanitarian Logistics: The Role of Commercial Logistics Service Providers
Authors
Kaustubh Navangul
Place of Publication
The paper was published at the 27th IMP-conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2011.
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Following the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean there has been widespread recognition of the importance of humanitarian logistics among its various stakeholders. With the increasing complexity and magnitude of the disasters over the years, the humanitarian aid organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the necessary relief services to the victims of the disasters. Further, the situation is aggravated by the limited amount of funding and other types of resources that are needed for carrying out the humanitarian logistics operations.
In such circumstances, the humanitarian aid organizations are increasingly looking to partner with commercial logistics service providers to augment their limited logistical capacities. Further, even within the commercial logistics sector, there is an increasing recognition of the huge business opportunity that the humanitarian logistics sector represents. While some of the vital resources such as physical assets, capabilities, organizational processes, information technology, knowledge etc. that they have accumulated in servicing the commercial sector could prove useful in the humanitarian sector, they too, in order to be successful in the humanitarian sector, will need to adapt themselves to the challenging environment of this sector. The humanitarian logistics landscape consists of at least 5 major actors, namely, government, donors, military, responding agencies and logistics service providers. And even though all of them are interdependent, research suggests that there exists only limited collaboration and coordination between them. In this context, if the commercial logistics service providers want to successfully participate in this sector, they need to develop strategies taking into consideration their interactions with all the major stakeholders. The IMP approach, with its emphasis upon rich description and efforts to understand the underlying processes behind interaction between organizations in networks is therefore appropriate for studying the abovementioned issue.
Keywords: humanitarian, logistics, strategy, interaction, IMP
Following the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean there has been widespread recognition of the importance of humanitarian logistics among its various stakeholders. With the increasing complexity and magnitude of the disasters over the years, the humanitarian aid organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the necessary relief services to the victims of the disasters. Further, the situation is aggravated by the limited amount of funding and other types of resources that are needed for carrying out the humanitarian logistics operations.
In such circumstances, the humanitarian aid organizations are increasingly looking to partner with commercial logistics service providers to augment their limited logistical capacities. Further, even within the commercial logistics sector, there is an increasing recognition of the huge business opportunity that the humanitarian logistics sector represents. While some of the vital resources such as physical assets, capabilities, organizational processes, information technology, knowledge etc. that they have accumulated in servicing the commercial sector could prove useful in the humanitarian sector, they too, in order to be successful in the humanitarian sector, will need to adapt themselves to the challenging environment of this sector. The humanitarian logistics landscape consists of at least 5 major actors, namely, government, donors, military, responding agencies and logistics service providers. And even though all of them are interdependent, research suggests that there exists only limited collaboration and coordination between them. In this context, if the commercial logistics service providers want to successfully participate in this sector, they need to develop strategies taking into consideration their interactions with all the major stakeholders. The IMP approach, with its emphasis upon rich description and efforts to understand the underlying processes behind interaction between organizations in networks is therefore appropriate for studying the abovementioned issue.
Keywords: humanitarian, logistics, strategy, interaction, IMP