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The ramp-up in humanitarian logistics operations is a stage when the demand surges, often at the start of an emergency. In response, agility is a key strategy used by the humanitarian organizations (HOs). However, the HOs are constrained by their existing resources and have to respond in the ramp-up process under their resource dependency. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework on agility-building strategies used by HOs for the ramp-up.

This study applies both the dynamic capabilities perspective and resource dependence theory to humanitarian relief operations, and develops four testable propositions to explore the agility-building strategies of the HOs for the ramp-up process. A multiple-case study is conducted on six international HOs operating in Indonesia to verify them, in addition to an extensive literature search.

The case study shows that the human resource management, pre-positioning, standardization and supplier management of the HOs are all related to their resources and environment in the ramp-up process. The authors highlight the practical differences between the few super large, resource rich and centralized HOs with the second-tier HOs.

Given the small sample size and single country as the site of study, some findings may not be applicable to the other HOs or in other regions.

The propositions could be applicable to other HOs operating under similar environments, and potentially to the commercial enterprises operating in a highly volatile environment with severe resource scarcity.

This study provides new insights into ramp-up operations and into how HOs build their agility and reduce their resource dependencies. Theoretically, the paper applies two established theories in the strategic management literature to a new field.

Unforeseen events can disrupt the operational process and negatively impact emergency resources optimization and its supply chain. A limited number of studies have addressed risk management issues in the context of emergency supply chains, and this existing research lacks inbuilt and practical techniques that can significantly affect the reliability of risk management outcomes. Therefore, this paper aims to identify and practically analyze the specific risk factors that can most likely disrupt the normal functioning of the emergency supply chain in disaster relief operations.

This paper has used a three-step process to investigate and evaluate risk factors associated with the emergency supply chain. First, the study conducts a comprehensive literature review to identify the risk factors. Second, the research develops a questionnaire survey to validate and classify the identified risk factors. At the end of this step, the study develops a hierarchical structure. Finally, the research investigates the weighted priority of the validated risk factors using the fuzzy-analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) methodology. Experts were required to provide subjective judgments.

This paper identified and validated 28 specific risk factors prevalent in emergency supply chains. Based on their contextual meanings, the research classified these risk factors into two main categories: internal and external risk factors; four subcategories: demand, supply, infrastructural and environmental risk factors; and 11 risk types: forecast, inventory, procurement, supplier, quality, transportation, warehousing, systems, disruption, social and political risk factors. The most significant risk factors include war and terrorism, the absence of legislative rules that can influence and support disaster relief operations, the impact of cascading disasters, limited quality of relief supplies and sanctions and constraints that can hinder stakeholder collaboration. Therefore, emergency supply chain managers should adopt appropriate strategies to mitigate these risk factors.

This study will contribute to the general knowledge of risk management in emergency supply chains. The identified risk factors and structural hierarchy taxonomic diagram will provide a comprehensive risk database for emergency supply chains.

The research findings will provide comprehensive and systemic support for respective practitioners and policymakers to obtain a firm understanding of the different risk categories and specific risk factors that can impede the effective functioning of the emergency supply chain during immediate disaster relief operations. Therefore, this will inform the need for the improvement of practices in critical aspects of the emergency supply chain through the selection of logistics and supply chain strategies that can ensure the robustness and resilience of the system.

This research uses empirical data to identify, categorize and validate risk factors in emergency supply chains. This study contributes to the theory of supply chain risk management. The study also adopts the fuzzy-AHP technique to evaluate and prioritize these risk factors to inform practitioners and policymakers of the most significant risk factors. Furthermore, this study serves as the first phase of managing risk in emergency supply chains since it motivates future studies to empirically identify, evaluate and select effective strategies that can eliminate or minimize the effects of these risk factors.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of agility in humanitarian logistics beyond emergency operations. Since the humanitarian logistics literature focuses primarily on emergencies and sees longer term and regular operations as being conducted in relatively stable and predictable environments, agile practices are usually not associated with humanitarian protracted operations. Therefore, this paper explores the logistics and supply chain environment in such operations in order to identify their basic features and determine if agility is an important requirement.

Using a case study of the United Nations World Food Programme, the authors collected and analysed qualitative and quantitative data on the characteristics of protracted operations, the risks and uncertainties most frequently encountered, their impact, and the ways that field logisticians manage contingencies.

The research demonstrates that unpredictability and disruptions exist in protracted operations. Therefore, short-term operational adjustments and agile practices are needed in order to support the continuity of humanitarian deliveries.

Future research should focus on a wider range of humanitarian organisations and move from a descriptive to a prescriptive approach in order to inform practice. Notwithstanding these limitations, the study highlights the need for academics to broaden the scope of their research beyond emergencies and to address the specific needs of humanitarian organisations involved in longer term operations.

This paper is the first empirical research focusing exclusively on the logistics features of humanitarian protracted operations. It provides a more concrete and complete understanding of these operations.

Subway systems are highly susceptible to external disturbances from emergencies, triggering a series of consequences such as the paralysis of the internal network transportation functions, causing significant economic and safety losses to cities. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the factors affecting the resilience of the subway system to reduce the impact of disaster incidents.

Using the interval type-2 fuzzy linguistic term set and the K-medoids clustering algorithm, this paper improves the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to construct a subway resilience factor analysis model for emergencies. Through comparative analysis, this study confirms the superior performance of the proposed approach in enhancing the precision of the DEMATEL method.

The results indicate that the operation and management level of emergency command organizations is the key resilience factors of subway operations in China. Furthermore, based on real case analyses, the corresponding suggestions and measures are put forward to improve the overall operation resilience level of the subway.

This paper identifies four emergency scenarios and 15 resilience factors affecting subway operations through literature review and expert consultation. The improved fuzzy DEMATEL method is applied to explore the levels of influence and causal mechanisms among the resilience factors of the subway system under the four emergency scenarios.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence enterprise resource planning (ERP) effectiveness within the context of emergency service organizations. Drawing on information systems (IS) effectiveness, ERP implementation and job satisfaction literature, the authors posit that user involvement, top management involvement and training satisfaction are the antecedents to perceived job satisfaction, and perceived job satisfaction leads to ERP effectiveness in emergency service organizations.

Survey methodology is used for collecting data for this research, and the PLS-SEM technique is used for analysis.

Results indicate users will be more satisfied with their training if their inputs are taken into account during their training and the top management is actively involved during the training process. Further, if the users perceive that they are adequately trained, they will be more satisfied with their jobs in using ERP, which will also lead to more effective ERP usage in emergency service operations.

The focus of this study is on a single emergency service organization and thus may not be generalizable to other sectors. The authors extend ERP research to the context of emergency service organizations and thus add to the literature on ERP and emergency services. They conceptualize perceived job satisfaction to integrate roles, teamwork, supervisor and their perception regarding their potential to grow in the organization.

The managerial contribution of this research is to identify the motivational aspects and provide practical insights into the effective use of ERP systems for emergency service organizations. From a managerial perspective, the study provides a framework for both IS and emergency service providers/executives to understand and evaluate the factors that help them use ERP effectively in their firms.

This study extends the knowledge of ERP systems. While most of the ERP research focuses on implementation, the authors’ focus is on the effective use of ERP in emergency service organizations. They focus on identifying key factors that are important to using ERP effectively, specifically in emergency service organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the integration of disaster recovery plan (DRP) objects development activities with the activities of the structured system analysis and design method (SSADM) methodology for developing an information system.

A step‐by‐step correlation of the SSADM methodology with DRP development activities is performed. By following this approach, a smaller system for emergency operations (DRP) can be designed in parallel with that for normal operations. Furthermore, the implementation of a normal operations system based on the requirements analysis and of an emergency operations system based on the critical business functions may follow the same line of reasoning.

The proposed enhancement brings benefits to both the organization and the system developer in terms of expenditure, self‐knowledge, personnel experience, reaction time, time and capability management and increase of competitiveness.

The practical acceptance of the proposed approach can drastically reduce the time elapsing between the completion of the normal operations system and the design of the emergency operations system. Moreover, the needs of the emergency operations system can be forecasted during the design of the normal operations system.

The paper extends the SSADM methodology by incorporating DRP development.

This paper seeks to explore how a self-organised social group (SOSG) can facilitate supply chain resilience (SCRES) during an emergency condition.

A netnographic research was conducted on SONJO, an online SOSG emerging in response to problems in personal protective equipment (PPE) and food small businesses' supply chains (SCs) during the state of COVID-19 emergency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Qualitative data of 237,010 words were extracted from the group chats among 223 SONJO WhatsApp Group (WAG) members and were analysed using template analysis.

This paper reveals five communicative acts through which the SOSG facilitates SCRES, namely supply chain (SC) knowledge sharing, networking, bridging, mapping, and mindfulness. The enactment of these communicative acts could foster SC collaboration and help rebuild and sustain the SC operations during the critical period of the pandemic. The SOSG also facilitates the SC actors to be heedful of their responsive actions and risky operations.

This paper emphasises the need for organisations to build and maintain relationships with social communities and to extend their social capital beyond their existing SC linkages as an alternative way to survive unexpected disruptions.

This paper offers a novel perspective to understand SCRES from an external force. It proposes that, in the face of a devastating disruption, SCRES is not a self-induced process and that the SOSG could play a pivotal role in rebuilding the disrupted SCs. It also shows how a humanitarian effort could help rebuild commercial SCs.

Globally, the presence of non-urgent patients in emergency departments (EDs) is considered one of the main reasons for creating excessive waiting times and overcrowding in units. This paper aims to understand the impact of non-urgent patients in EDs' operations.

This study is based on qualitative case studies conducted within two Brazilian EDs, and uses interviews and observations to access the data.

From a thematic analysis, three key themes emerged: characteristics of non-urgent demands in EDs, negative aspects of non-urgent patients in EDs, and the impact of the healthcare system model on EDs. These themes bring to light the impact that non-urgent patients have in EDs' operations, and provide theoretical and practical implications.

The limitation of this work is bound by the understanding of the non-urgent demands in EDs. Therefore, a benchmarking approach (investigating state-of-the-art practices to avoid such impact) was not applied but was suggested for future research instead.

The research provides significant contributions to practitioners and policymakers, aiding future discussions to improve healthcare coverage and performance.

The research provides significant contributions for managers and policymakers, aiding future discussions to improve healthcare. For instance, the use of well-known techniques (e.g. lean, six sigma) are discussed and suggested to enhance healthcare capacity and performance. Furthermore, the policymakers are called upon to evaluate the healthcare access and provide regulations that involve innovative approaches to widen healthcare access.

Based upon empirical data, this research extends the discussions related to non-urgent patient in EDs and is not limited merely to descriptive analysis, but by providing practical propositions and discussions related to the impact of these patients' presence in EDs' operations. Finally, the research provides a range of suggestions for future research related to the EDs' operational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the issues and challenges in humanitarian logistics and to develop a framework for effectively managing the humanitarian logistics in disaster relief supply chain operations in India.

This paper presents a framework to manage humanitarian logistics effectively in disaster management through qualitative analysis. First, the author examines the challenges facing the humanitarian logistics and supply chain through the reviews of the literature on various disasters. Then, the author presented a framework based on the best practices and initiatives taken worldwide in the preparedness and response stage of the humanitarian supply chain to manage and reduce the aftermath of any disaster in context to India.

A framework has been developed to manage humanitarian logistics in the disaster relief operation, which would improve the humanitarian supply chain in India and help to effectively manage natural disasters in the preparedness and response stage at the state and district levels.

The paper mainly emphasises on the preparedness and response stage of disaster supply chain management in Indian context.

None of the disaster incidents can be stopped from taking place, but the impact can be minimised by proper preparedness and effective response during the operations of humanitarian logistics. With this hope, the framework has been developed, which if implemented would help to plan and manage any disaster incident in an effective manner, which ultimately would save millions of lives and cost in terms of infrastructure, property, assets etc.

As natural disaster incidents are occurring frequently in Indian states, there is an urgent need for a framework to manage the logistics operations effectively and efficiently during any disaster relief operations. Limited literature is found on developing and presenting a framework focusing on the preparedness and response phase of disaster supply chain management in context to India. Hence, this paper is believed to be the first to fulfil this gap with main emphasis on the preparedness and response stage of disaster supply chain management in Indian scenario.

While the need for information systems is regularly highlighted in the humanitarian logistics literature, a detailed model of what such system would look like is missing. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need and advantages of enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology in humanitarian emergency logistics. The paper also proposes a model for the configuration, maintenance, operation, and improvement of the system.

This conceptual paper uses existing logistics and information systems literature to build the logical case for an integrated enterprise system for humanitarian emergencies, and to propose conceptual content and process models.

The problem of lack of coordination is reviewed, and a holistic solution is proposed through a structure and model of ERP systems technology to meet the specific requirements of humanitarian emergencies.

As in any conceptual paper, a limitation of this paper is the lack of empirical validation of the proposed system. It also might be difficult to obtain the cooperation of multiple organizations. This research focuses on emergency humanitarian logistics, where effectiveness and speed have priority over simplicity or cost.

The model proposed in this paper links current efforts in humanitarian emergency coordination with existing supply chain information technologies, and is practically feasible both from the technological and organizational perspectives.

Because of the critical, life or death nature of the problem, social and ethical implications of this research are broad, including the divergence of coordination in humanitarian vs commercial and military logistics, as well as inter-agency politics.

This paper is a bold but realistic attempt to take a holistic view of humanitarian logistics and design a system that would be effective, and calls humanitarian organizations worldwide to collaborate in its implementation.