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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a game-like decision tool – “Greatest Good Donations Calculator (GGDC)”, which has been collaboratively developed by scholars from the University of Rhode Island and the USAID Center for International Disaster Information.

The study is grounded in two streams of research – human learning through games and systems dynamics literature. The problem of “unsolicited in-kind donations” is discussed followed by the development of the GGDC.

The GGDC is a game-like decision tool that informs users on some of the complexities associated with humanitarian supply chains, and the ineffective nature of unsolicited in-kind donations compared to monetary contributions when sent in response to international disasters.

The GGDC could be made more interactive and playable that could improve user engagement. The GGDC’s value to the humanitarian community and public could also be measured in other ways, such as surveys and A/B split tests after a major donation campaign.

Games, simulations and game-like tools could successfully be used to educate donors about smart compassion.

Humanitarian researchers and scholars should consider more games to motivate/drive social change in the humanitarian world.

This is the first paper to introduce the GGDC to the humanitarian logistics community with detailed content about positioning the study in the academic literature, and stages of development. Scholars, searching to adopt games or developing new games for the humanitarian world may find the information valuable. The GGDC is a unique example of federal government – academia collaboration in raising public awareness of the unsolicited good donations problem.

Pharmaceutical donations are a practical approach to increase medicine availability during disasters such as disease outbreaks. However, often donated pharmaceuticals are inappropriate and unsuitable. This convergence of inappropriate pharmaceuticals is a severe operational challenge and results in environmental hazards. This study explores the pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs) during a disease outbreak to relieve the negative impact of the material convergence problem (MCP).

This study adopts a situation-actors-process learning-action-performance (SAP-LAP) linkage framework to understand the PSC dynamics. The problem-solving component of the SAP-LAP analysis provides the strategies catering to MCP. The findings from the SAP-LAP helped to develop the causal loop diagram (CLD). This study conducts several experiments on the proposed strategies by integrating CLD into a stock and flow diagram. Later, a disease outbreak case study accessed the pharmaceutical donations effect on PSC performance.

The study synthesises and evaluates propositions and strategies to incorporate circular economy (CE) principles in PSC. This study proposed two strategies; one to sort and supply and the other to sort, supply and resell. The reuse policy improves humanitarian organisations' finances in the simulation study. This study verified the operational improvement of PSC by reducing the transport and storage burden due to MCP.

This study comprehensively approaches the issue of drug donation and uniquely produced several propositions for incorporating a CE perspective in PSC. The study also proposed a unique simulation approach to model the donation arrivals in response to a disease outbreak using susceptible, exposed, infectious and recovered modelling.

The purpose of this guest editorial is to provide the introduction and context of the Special Issue on Games for Learning and Dialogue on Humanitarian Work. The Special Issue aims to promote the development, deployment, and analysis of games for the humanitarian sector: it investigates how games can meaningfully engage people and organizations in experiencing, understanding and improving complex systems.

The editorial describes the need and motivation for building a body of knowledge on the use of games in the humanitarian sector. It further gives an overview of the three papers included in this Special Issue and how they contribute to building such a body of knowledge.

Games enable participants to experience the complexity of humanitarian systems, linking decisions with consequences. Even though game-like approaches have been used for decades in disaster management, there is little written about it. The papers included in this Special Issue provide insights and frameworks to learn from, ranging from online tools that reveal inefficiencies in supply chains, to simulated emergency response exercises, to applied improvisation. In addition, the current papers highlight the need for more empirical study of the impact of games.

The Special Issue describes three unique cases, which by no means cover the entire practice of games in the humanitarian sector. However, they do provide insight into the diversity of game-like approaches and signal the current state of practice and research of games for learning and dialogue on humanitarian work.

This editorial gives an overview of how games could be used in practice and why they are relevant for humanitarian work. It further highlights how the contributions in the Special Issue may help in improving humanitarian work.

Although review papers and Special Issues have appeared on particular topics such as climate change, to our knowledge no significant academic attention has been given to humanitarian work with regards to games.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the humanitarian service management categories that influence long-term transformation within complex community-based service ecosystems.

This study utilizes mixed methods to present a dynamic model that provides insight into the complexities of supplying, distributing and transporting charitable resources to underserved communities. The interdisciplinary study draws on the theory of service-dominant logic and service science, presents critical elements of transformative service research and uses system dynamics approach to propose a visual causal loop model.

This study develops a dynamic model for studying humanitarian service and value propositions in underserved communities. This paper combines the extant literature to emphasize key humanitarian service categories that influence, and are influenced by, service exchanges within community-based contexts.

This paper is limited in providing quantitative methods in analyzing the case study data. However, the research is still helpful in providing acumen via the causal loop diagram to specifically look into each variable and see their cause and effect relationships in the community-based ecosystem. The research represents an opportunity to model the humanitarian aid and relief scenarios to help make more effective decision-making interventions.

The model serves as a managerial tool to determine critical services that optimize resource utilization within the community-based service ecosystems. Insights from this research are broadly applicable to the contexts of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management (HLSCM) solutions for community-based ventures.

This paper conceptualizes how the management of service-for-service exchanges, logistics services and charitable donation management provides transformational humanitarian services and value propositions within underserved communities. This study further provides fundamental contributions by addressing research gaps in the HLSCM domain by supporting service research and the community-based context.

The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the use of standards and modularity for improving responsiveness in the humanitarian context.

Based on a conceptual framework and a systematic literature review, the authors conducted a longitudinal, explorative case on the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) concept in the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Society (IFRC), focussing particularly on the Health ERU in the Norwegian Red Cross.

The authors found that the ERU concept makes use of many types of standards that complement and influence each other, and that the focus on modularity is increasing due to a growing need for responsiveness. Main challenges are trade-offs between autonomy and adaptability to the context resulting in more modularization which may be in danger of breaking the concept.

Results from this study could be refined by surveying staff involved in all types of ERU deployments. To explore the generalizability of the findings and test the propositions developed, more studies should be conducted.

The study provides more understanding of the use of standards and modularity for improving responsiveness. Practitioners can use the framework as a check-list to identify potential means for improvements. The case can be used for training, discussions, and reflections. The research feeds into IFRC’s and NORCROSS ongoing work to their global response tools.

The results of the study can support improvements in humanitarian supply chains, thereby providing affected people with cost-efficient, rapid, and better-adapted responses.

The authors develop a framework for categorization of standards and modularity in the humanitarian context. The authors provide the first empirical study on how humanitarian organizations use standards and modularity to improve responsiveness concluding with a set of propositions on how the concepts are linked.

Despite the significance of donations (Sadaqah) via mobile payment in Islamic countries, little is known about the variables influencing continuance intention toward using m-payment for donations (Sadaqah). Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, this research explores the influence of perceived quality (i.e. system, information, service) as a stimulus on customer satisfaction, engagement and delight as organisms, which then affects continuance intention toward using m-payment for donations (Sadaqah) as a response. Moreover, the study investigates the moderating role of Islamic religiosity.

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a representative data sample of 419 Egyptian Muslims was analyzed to test hypotheses.

The findings revealed that all perceived quality constructs significantly positively affect customers' satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, in turn, positively affects customer engagement and delight. Moreover, customer engagement, delight and Islamic religiosity significantly positively affect continuance intention toward using m-payment for donations (Sadaqah). The findings also revealed that Islamic religiosity moderates the influence of customer engagement and customer delight on continuance intention toward using m-payment for donations (Sadaqah).

This is the first study to examine using m-payment for donations (Sadaqah) in an Islamic environment based on the S-O-R model.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for research through game design and discuss how simulation games can be used to bridge the gap between operational exercises and simulation or analytical modelling and to provide guidelines on how simulation games can be designed for different research purposes in the context of humanitarian logistics.

This paper combines a literature review on gaming as a research method with an analysis of requirements for humanitarian logistics research methods. Starting from this theoretical framework, the authors develop a design thinking approach that highlights how games can be used for different research purposes. To illustrate the approach, the authors develop two different game set-ups that are of increasing fidelity and complexity. Finally, the authors discuss the results of the evaluation of both approaches, reflect on the design choices and provide recommendations for research and practice.

Gaming is a suitable research method to explore and analyse behaviour and decisions in emergent settings that require team work and collaborative problem solving. Especially when safety and security concerns may hinder access and experimentation on site, gaming can offer a realistic and engaging quasi-experimental environment. The aspects of engagement and realism also make gaming a suitable tool to combine training and research.

Although the use of games has attracted some attention in commercial supply chain management and crisis response, there is no systematic overview of gaming as a research method in humanitarian logistics. This paper is set to make a headway in addressing this gap by proposing a concrete approach to design games for humanitarian logistics research.

This paper aims to explore the area of carbon offsets and carbon neutrality within the context of hotels and resorts. In theory, carbon markets assist organizations in reducing their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets. This conceptual paper aims to explore this market, analyze its operations and evaluate the participants. The expectation is that this original research will provide a foundation for analyzing this market to make sense of the widely disparate views about carbon neutrality held by companies in the hospitality sector.

The research study aimed to uncover what claims are currently made about carbon neutrality, what properties are making these claims and are these claims legitimate? A broad Internet search was conducted to collect a sample of hotels and resorts that marketed carbon neutrality as a feature of their properties. Next, a five-point Likert type scale was constructed to analyze every hotel and resort in terms of legitimate reflection of market performance challenges or dimensions. In this study, the hotels that claim to be “Carbon Neutral” were scored according to four market performance dimensions: project quality, carbon calculations, quality information of providers and price per ton of carbon offset.

The paper’s findings offer a twofold contribution. First, hotels and resorts interested in entering the offset market can use the results as strategic information to bolster efforts to achieve legitimacy and viability in this market. Second, the findings offer a benefit to consumers concerned to reduce their carbon footprint, as the results include a determination of the best hotels and resorts in terms of carbon neutrality.

This research found that the claim “carbon neutral” is used often to attract green consumers. The spectrum of claims ranged from hotels presenting comprehensive carbon management plans or online carbon footprint applications, to hotels that had minimal information and used the “carbon neutral” for marketing purposes only. In numerous cases, the claim of carbon neutrality is not substantiated and, in this case, might be construed as greenwashing.

The findings indicate that claims of carbon neutrality can be exaggerated and that the consumers must themselves be educated to be aware of claims that are unfounded.

Given the large and rising number of offset providers in the unregulated carbon offset industry and the hotel industry, this contribution promises to offer value. This study is one of the first formal analyses of carbon offsets in the hospitality market. The author hopes that this study will encourage others to research the growing market of voluntary carbon offsets further.

The present study aims to report the findings of a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Facebook pages of the two presidential candidates.

The sample contained 513 posts collected during the last three months of the 2012 US presidential election. The analysis of the candidates’ pages consisted of three phases: the identification of the different elements of the Aristotelian language of persuasion, the identification of the subjects that appear on the posts, and the identification of additional roles that the Facebook pages play in the campaigns.

Findings show that both candidates used an emotional and motivational appeal to create a social capital and to present a personal image that revealed very little of their personal lives. Statistical analysis shows the numbers of comments and likes given to the posts were influenced by the element of persuasion used on the posts. Results show that campaigns wanted to retain control of the message displayed on the pages by posting information on a small number of non‐controversial subjects. Finally, the content analysis revealed that the Facebook pages were used for fund‐raising purposes, and for the mobilization of supporters. The Facebook pages of both candidates present an alternative way to do politics called fandom politics that is based not on logic or reason but on the affective sensibility of the audiences, discouraging dissent and encouraging affective allegiances between the candidate and his supporters.

This study presents an innovative way of analyzing the use of social media sites as a tool for the dissemination of political information and reveals utilization of these media for the creation of social and economic capital by politicians.

This study reports the results of the empirical investigation of the Shari'ah legal framework which serves as a basis of the crowd humanitarian fund and poverty reduction among members of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for improving living conditions of less privileged people in the society.

Quantitative design was employed in this study and the population comprised middle and high-skilled workers among members of the OIC.

The results demonstrated that the majority of middle- and high-skilled workers were from the middle east and others were from Saudi Arabia, Asia and Africa respectively.

Most studies on crowd humanitarian funds were theoretical in nature, this study has empirically investigated.

By making crowd humanitarian funds to be grounded within the framework of Shari'ah, it will enable majority of people in predominant Muslim countries to partake in mutual or crowd funding in order to help the less-privileged individuals among OIC members in the society.

It is an important contribution for financial inclusion and economic growth for improving social and living conditions of the less privileged people in the society.

Most studies on crowd humanitarian funds were theoretical in nature; this study has empirically provided a substantial direction for activating the mindset of the empirical investigation of different financial concepts.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2022-0773.