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The purpose of this work is the development of a structured case study design process for developing case studies in humanitarian logistics, in particular for short-term predictable disaster situations like floods and hurricanes. Moreover, useful public sources are presented in order to enable researchers to find relevant data for their case studies more easily.

A structured framework for case study design is set up, splitting the process into different steps and phases.

The framework is applied to an illustrative example, where case studies with different numbers and levels of detail of scenarios are designed based on the three-day forecast for hurricane Harvey in 2017. The corresponding solutions demonstrate the relevance of using as much forecast information as possible in case study building, and in particular in scenario design, in order to get useful and appropriate results.

The case study design process is mostly suitable for short-term predictable disasters, but can also be adapted to other types of disasters. The process has been applied to one specific hurricane here which serves as an example.

Also for practitioners, the results of this work are highly relevant, as constructing realistic cases using real data will lead to more useful results. Moreover, it is taken into account in the case study design process that relief agencies are regularly confronted with disasters in certain areas and hence need to define the basic planning situation and parameters “once and for all” and on a long-term basis, whereas disaster specific data from forecasts are only available within a short time frame.

The new design process can be applied by researchers as well as practitioners, and the publicly available data sources will be useful to the community.

The Morgan Library at Colorado State University in Fort Collins suffered catastrophic flooding as the result of a historic rain storm and flood that swept through the town on July 28, 1997. This study examines this single library's organizational disaster response and identifies the phenomena that the library's employees cited as their motivation for innovation.

Purpose – This study provides an example of a library where a pre-disaster and post-disaster organizational environment was supportive of experimentation. This influenced the employees’ capacity and motivation to create a new tool meant to solve a temporary need. Their invention, a service now called RapidILL, advanced the Morgan Library organization beyond disaster recovery and has become an effective and popular consortium of libraries.

Design/methodology/approach – This is an instrumental case study. This design was chosen to examine the issues in organizational learning that the single case of Morgan Library presents. The researcher interviewed employees who survived the 1997 flood and who worked in the library after the disaster. The interview results and a book written by staff members are the most important data that form the basis for this qualitative research.

The interviews were transcribed, and key phrases and information from both the interviews and the published book were isolated into themes for coding. The coding allowed the use of NVivo 7, a text analysis software, to search in employees’ stories for “feeling” words and themes about change, innovation, motivation, and mental models.

Three research questions for the study sought to learn how employees described their lived experience, how the disaster altered their mental models of change, and what factors in the disaster response experience promoted learning and innovation.

Findings – This study investigates how the disruptive forces of disaster can influence and promote organizational learning and foster innovation. Analysis of the data demonstrates how the library employees’ feelings of trust before and following a workplace disaster shifted their mental models of change. They felt empowered to act and assert their own ideas; they did not simply react to change acting upon them.

Emotions motivate adaptive actions, facilitating change. The library employees’ lived experiences and feelings influenced what they learned, how quickly they learned it, and how that learning contributed to their innovations after the disaster. The library's supervisory and administrative leaders encouraged staff members to try out new ideas. This approach invigorated staff members’ feelings of trust and motivated them to contribute their efforts and ideas. Feeling free to experiment, they tapped their creativity and provided adaptations and innovations.

Practical implications – A disaster imposes immediate and often unanticipated change upon people and organizations. A disaster response urgently demands that employees do things differently; it also may require that employees do different things.

Successful organizations must become adept at creating and implementing changes to remain relevant and effective in the environments in which they operate. They need to ensure that employees generate and test as many ideas as possible in order to maximize the opportunity to uncover the best new thinking. This applies to libraries as well as to any other organizations.

If library leaders understand the conditions under which employees are most motivated to let go of fear and alter the mental models they use to interpret their work world, it should be possible and desirable to re-create those conditions and improve the ability of their organizations to tap into employees’ talent, spur innovation, and generate meaningful change.

Social implications – Trust and opportunities for learning can be central to employees’ ability to embrace change as a positive state in which their creativity flourishes and contributes to the success of the organization. When leaders support experimentation, employees utilize and value their affective connections as much as their professional knowledge. Work environments that promote experimentation and trust are ones in which employees at any rank feel secure enough to propose and experiment with innovative services, products, or workflows.

Originality/value – The first of its kind to examine library organizations, this study offers direct evidence to show that organizational learning and progress flourish through a combination of positive affective experiences and experimentation. The study shows how mental models, organizational learning, and innovation may help employees create significantly effective organizational advances while under duress.

An original formula is presented in Fig. 1.

The purpose of this research is to examine why communities facing the same disaster recover differentially and determine pathways to successful disaster recovery in the research setting of New Orleans neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Katrina. While previous studies suggest that there are a variety of pathways to recovery, a broader cross-case comparison is necessary to generalize these pathways into a recovery framework. Specifically, this study seeks to determine what pre-disaster and post-disaster causal factors, alone or in combination, were important to recovery following Hurricane Katrina.

This paper presents a cross-case comparative study of neighborhood-level recovery. Based on prior work, which used the Delphi method to determine hypothesized causal factors and indicators of recovery, data was collected through publically available sources, including the US Census, the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center and previously completed studies for 18 damaged neighborhoods. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was used due to its ability to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data for smaller case studies.

The results show that there are multiple pathways combining pre-disaster community factors and post-disaster actions that led to recovery, as measured by population return. For example, economic capacity is nearly sufficient for recovery, but a combination of low social vulnerability, post-disaster community participation, a high proportion of pre-World War II housing stock and high amounts of post-disaster funds also led to recovery.

This research uses a novel method to link pre-disaster measures of resilience and vulnerability to recovery outcomes and, through cross-case comparison, generates results that will enable researchers to develop a theory of sustainable community recovery.

The purpose of this study is to examine looting behaviour during natural disaster incidents. As a consequence, this study considers looting in the context of two case studies: a Tsunami and a Bushfire. The study offers an exploration into the types of and motivations for looting, as well as reflecting on prevention measures.

The methodological approach of a rapid evidence assessment (REA) is used to examine looting behaviour within the context of two natural disaster incidents, drawing on a thematic analysis, as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006) to support the presentation of findings.

The findings of the REA yield three themes. The first theme, Theme 1, focuses on the types of offenders – looters, while Theme 2 focuses on the motivations for offending behaviour – looting. The final theme, Theme 3, presents crime prevention responses: looters and looting. Each theme is further illustrated through a number of sub-themes, and while the two case studies centre on two distinct natural disaster incidents, there are similarities that exist between them offering insights for why looting occurs and consequently how to respond to looting.

Previous research has recognised how incidents such as bushfires enable and create opportunity for looting behaviour. Yet, arguably, little has been achieved in successfully preventing such behaviour. This study offers evidence for why looting occurs during natural disaster incidents and considers the prevention measures that can lead to a reduction in this offending into the future. The need for more detailed and primary research into looting during natural disaster incidents is a research implication engendered by the current study.

This study considers crime prevention approaches in the form of situational crime prevention and social development crime prevention that have direct relevance on crime prevention policy and practice. The practical implications are worthy of attention from law enforcement agencies and other first/emergency responders.

This study seeks to offer evidence for policy and practice initiatives that can increase public safety and reduce further threats to community safety during natural disaster incidents.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a concerted effort for swifter and more effective responses to emergency management incidents has occurred. However, the focus of such responses has typically overlooked looting during natural disaster incidents. This study goes some way in addressing that gap in the literature and connects the current scientific knowledge to prevention strategies, informing future policy and practice responses to addressing looting during such incidents. This study provides a stimuli for further research into looters, looting and natural disaster incidents.

Natural disasters occur all around the world, in the last two decades these natural disasters have brought sever damages to the world economy. Mostly developing countries bear severe consequences due to these natural disasters. In July 2010, Pakistan faced a massive flood, which affected almost all the countries. The disaster affected all sectors like daily life, transportation, infrastructure, etc., of the country. GOP did not have enough resources to cope with this giant disaster and called for international help. Local and international NGOs participated with GOP in the early phases of recovery. Millions of dollars were given away as the initial impact of this disaster, and GOP and other relief agents have spent other million to provide initial recovery and relief. GOP will need billions of dollars further to continue recovery from the disaster of 2010.

Disaster management and humanitarian logistics (HT) play crucial roles in large-scale events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. Well-organized disaster response is crucial for effectively managing medical centres, staff allocation and casualty distribution during emergencies. To address this issue, this study aims to introduce a multi-objective stochastic programming model to enhance disaster preparedness and response, focusing on the critical first 72 h after earthquakes. The purpose is to optimize the allocation of resources, temporary medical centres and medical staff to save lives effectively.

This study uses stochastic programming-based dynamic modelling and a discrete-time Markov Chain to address uncertainty. The model considers potential road and hospital damage and distance limits and introduces an a-reliability level for untreated casualties. It divides the initial 72 h into four periods to capture earthquake dynamics.

Using a real case study in Istanbul’s Kartal district, the model’s effectiveness is demonstrated for earthquake scenarios. Key insights include optimal medical centre locations, required capacities, necessary medical staff and casualty allocation strategies, all vital for efficient disaster response within the critical first 72 h.

This study innovates by integrating stochastic programming and dynamic modelling to tackle post-disaster medical response. The use of a Markov Chain for uncertain health conditions and focus on the immediate aftermath of earthquakes offer practical value. By optimizing resource allocation amid uncertainties, the study contributes significantly to disaster management and HT research.

This paper aims to identify the main performance criteria for Humanitarian Operations (HOs) from the beneficiary perspective and to propose a taxonomy to support the evaluation of stakeholders.

The research conducts a Systematic Literature Review to identify the main criteria in HOs from the beneficiary's view. Also, we conduct an empirical study based on a survey and a case study to validate the findings in a real-life setting.

Considering 25 papers, the identified performance criteria were divided into six categories: health, housing, education, socioeconomic factors, care and risk and disaster management. The empirical discussion considered forty-four responses from beneficiaries, and the main criteria complained about were related to socioeconomic factors. In addition, a case study was developed that examines the perspective of the company responsible for the construction of the building to aid in understanding the areas of dissatisfaction noted by the residents.

The research contributes organized criteria to support the performance evaluation of organizations. It offers a structured basis for further discussion among academics and professionals about other performance evaluation topics, such as dashboards and the integration of indicators from different stakeholders.

Literature is scarce in questions of performance evaluation in HOs and the analysis of the beneficiary as the main client. Therefore, the paper contributes to both areas by evaluating HOs from the beneficiary's perspective.

The lack of studies about the relevance of disaster awareness factors and disaster evacuation as a part of disaster responses especially for fire cases in an academic environment in Indonesia has triggered this study to explore the disaster awareness factors and evacuation experiment without emergency alarm for case study students in the classroom. The relevance of disaster awareness factors in transforming into practical action and decision in a disaster evacuation need to be examined to study the relevance of both phases in disaster.

This research conducted a quantitative approach by studying questionnaires from 162 respondents collectively divided into five groups to examine the student disaster awareness factors randomly from those groups. The qualitative approach was implemented through the evacuation experiments that were conducted twice to analyze the disaster evacuation performance. The analysis for the relevance is conducted by comparing the result of the questionnaire study and the evacuation experiment.

According to the questionnaire study, generally, the students are highly confident with their hazard knowledge in disaster awareness except that half of them are doubtful about appropriate steps in a disaster. The experiment without explosive sound showed that they have slower responses in the critical moment of evacuation. The response in the experiments showed relevance with several disaster awareness factors

This study has explored the relevance of disaster awareness factors with disaster response in a campus building. In the part of reducing risk during fire disaster, this research shows the importance of social interaction and hazard knowledge during the disaster.

The improvement of disaster evacuation procedures and training in a campus building is mandatory to reduce disaster risk based on the relevance of disaster awareness factors and disaster response in this study.

This study measures the relevance of disaster awareness factors performance of the students by comparing it to their actions and decisions in an experimental setting of fire building. The disaster awareness factor performance was measured by a questionnaire survey while the experiments were deployed to observe the performance of their actions and decisions during evacuation as part of the disaster response phase.

This article analyzes biopolitical strategies for the recovery of neoliberal normality in urban areas affected by earthquakes in 1985, 2010 and 2015 in Chile (intensity >8.0_Mw).

This is a qualitative design research. In total, 198 semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven focus groups. The data were processed in search of discursive threads, guided by the categories contained in the analysis and those arising from the interview transcripts.

Results describe three clusters of discursive threads: disruption of normality, strategies of disaster biopolitics and narratives on the recovery of normality in the medium to long term. In the analyzed cases, disaster biopolitics entered domestic and community spaces to govern life; while the aim was to safeguard lives, it also sought to ensure the continuity of the neoliberal regime. The disaster biopolitics used the exception to normalize, constructing subjectivity and memory around the idea of catastrophes.

The qualitative design can be used in sudden and extreme situations, but it is not possible to anticipate similar results in other kind of disasters (e.g. drought).

This study wants to contribute a political vision about disasters by describing the process of restoring order, which follows highly destructive disasters, by demonstrating that in Chile, the biopolitical exception was key to returning to neoliberal normality.

The findings can help improve emergency responses and propose the necessity of political contextualization in post-disaster recovery processes.

Purpose – This study seeks to identify the factors that made Hurricane Katrina the worst disaster in American history. Although the inefficiency of the centralized government is often cited as the primary reason for failure in disaster mitigation and recovery, more fundamental reasons are left unexplored.

Design/methodology/approach – This study points out that comparative case analysis is inadequate to substantiate the claim that private actors are better responders to disaster than public agents. Instead, it takes a single case study approach of hurricane response in New Orleans. This method allows for two things: first, extending the temporal scope helps to understand that disaster management is not a single event but a cumulative result of the past responses. Second, one can trace the interplay between public and private agents rather than their separate reactions.

Findings – A series of legal conditions within the federalist framework have discouraged effective disaster management by the federal government. Using both legal and extralegal means, local actors tried to avoid the federal government's involvement in land use and building control that may prohibit local economic activities. Instead, the federal government was pressured into providing structural protection such as levee construction, which is costly yet ineffective in preventing a mega-disaster like Hurricane Katrina.

Originality/value of paper – This study warrants caution in conducting a comparative case analysis in evaluating the role of the federal government in disaster response and recovery. By conducting an in-depth case study of New Orleans hurricane response over the past 50 years, it reveals that the current government failure stems from structural and legal conditions rather than bureaucratic inefficiency.