Humanitarian supply chain management frameworks: A critical literature review and framework for future development

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare extant framework in humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) and to propose a framework on humanitarian supply chain (HSC) performance measurement based on the content, context and process.

Design/methodology/approach

The structured keywords, namely humanitarian supply chain (HSC), humanitarian logistic (HL), humanitarian relief chain (HRC) and humanitarian chain (HC) as an exact phrase were searched in the title, abstract and keywords in the academic database. A total of 66 peer-reviewed articles were selected for analysis purpose that reports framework from the reviewed literature. These selected frameworks are categorized in dimensions, namely framework novelty, framework source, recognize elements/constructs of framework, comparative analysis of the framework and in-depth study of HSCM performance measurement.

Findings

The analysis reveals that the majority of these developed frameworks are novel and academic based. Case study is most prominent research methodology in the development of HSCM framework. Lack of coordination among humanitarian stakeholders is the major challenge in the empirical implementation of framework. This study proposes future research trend toward a unified HSCM framework that will facilitate to uncover the coherent set of elements/constructs in the field of HSCM.

Research limitations/implications

This study considers peer-reviewed articles published in English language, and excludes conference papers, working articles, technical data/reports and book chapters.

Practical implications

This study categorizes new dimension for framework analysis and proposed an HSC performance measurement framework which gives new insights to the academicians, practitioners and policy makers for future work.

Social implications

This examination gives the establishment to facilitate investigation of viable, efficient and effective HSCM, and detail opportunities for practices.

Originality/value

This study critically analyzes 66 frameworks under the different criteria to identify research gap and trends. Furthermore, this study proposes the HSC performance measurement framework.

Citation

Agarwal, S., Kant, R. and Shankar, R. (2019), "Humanitarian supply chain management frameworks: A critical literature review and framework for future development", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 1749-1780. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-08-2018-0245