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This paper aims to develop a crisis readiness framework for road traffic crisis response for law enforcement agencies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A Delphi method was used that combined questionnaire-based survey and the analytical hierarchy process to collect quantitative and qualitative data from an expert panel of crisis readiness professionals on how they prioritise and weigh the different strategic criteria, sub-criteria and performance indicators in the context of law enforcement agencies’ traffic response.

The findings of this paper resulted in the identification, ranking and validation of ten key dimensions of crisis readiness clustered into three distinct sets of priority rankings: response planning, resources, training and coordination; information management and communication and risk and hazard assessment; and early warning, legal and institutional frameworks, recovery initiation and property protection. The results additionally established the relative priority of sub-criteria for each criterion and validated a broad set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the top six ranked criteria.

The findings are based on a single case study focused on a specific area of operation within crisis response and one group of organisations of the UAE police sector. This potentially places a constraint on the wider generalisation of the findings to different operational areas and agencies, as they may have different priorities or organisational conditions that have implications for the framework application and the relative importance of certain criteria and sub-criteria.

This paper provides strategic guidance in the form of a prioritised list of criteria, sub-criteria and KPIs that can direct efforts to optimise different dimensions of crisis readiness at a strategic and operational level.

This paper makes an original contribution in identifying the key criteria and performance indicators of crisis readiness for road traffic situations. The findings contribute a comprehensive strategic readiness framework that supports planning and decision-making for the development of organisational capacities that can enhance response times of police to road traffic crises. This framework ranks dimensions of crisis readiness and key sub-criteria in order of priority and validates the key components of crisis readiness that can support practitioners to structure, standardise and benchmark key processes and elements of crisis response.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for the development of emergency logistics response models. The proposition of a conceptual framework is in itself not sufficient and simulation models are further needed in order to help emergency logistics decision makers in refining their preparedness planning process.

The paper presents a framework proposition with illustrative case study.

The use of simulation modelling can help enhance the reliability and validity of developed emergency response model.

The emergency response model outcomes are still based on simulated outputs and would still need to be validated in a real‐life environment. Proposing a new or revised emergency logistics response model is not sufficient. Developed logistics response models need to be further validated and simulation modelling can help enhance validity.

Emergency logistics decision makers can make better informed decisions based on simulation model output and can further refine their decision‐making capability.

The paper posits the contribution of simulation modelling as part of the framework for developing and refining emergency logistics response.

This paper aims to unveil the importance of knowledge management on a firm’s strategic emergency response during the great negative shock from global public health threats. Through analyzing how representative firms in China’s new economy industries dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic before, during and after the crisis, the significant problems confronted by these firms are pointed out, and the important role knowledge management capabilities played in solving these problems is proven.

The open data of listed companies regarding the important role knowledge management played in firms’ strategic emergency response during the COVID-19 pandemic are qualitatively analyzed. Based on theoretical sampling, this paper selects representative samples of enterprises and analyzes the positive response measures they took after being hit by this public health event to gain qualitative insight into the importance of knowledge management capabilities in strategic emergency response.

Three aspects of the important role of knowledge management capabilities in a firm’s strategic emergency response during the COVID-19 pandemic are introduced: before the crisis, firms should strengthen the acquisition, sharing and integration of knowledge so that they can intensify their monitoring for uncertain risks; during the crisis, firms should boost the transmission, transformation and diffusion of knowledge to improve emergency cooperation; and after the crisis, companies should reinforce knowledge evaluation, creation and application to enhance “immunity” in similar emergencies.

This paper has important implications for bolstering strategic emergency management practice and knowledge management capability among firms. Future research must focus on the following two aspects for further investigation: the dynamic relationship between firm knowledge management capability and strategic emergency response ability; and the collaboration system between firm knowledge management and strategic emergency response behaviors.

This paper discusses the important role knowledge management capabilities play in firms’ strategic emergency responses based on insights gained from the significant changes that the COVID-19 pandemic caused to representative Chinese new economy firms. By analyzing the three stages of before, during and after the emergency, this paper proposes the exact efforts that new economy companies should make in improving knowledge management capability.

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.

Major incidents in tunnel environment will pose several challenges for the emergency service organisations in terms of heat, visibility and lack of experiences from working in confined environments. These aspects, in turn, could pose challenges to establish collaboration. This study aims to contribute to the field of collaborative tunnel responses by exploring how “common knowledge” (Edwards, 2011) is built by the emergency services organisations, that is, what the organisations consider important while working on a potentially common problem, and their motives for the interpretations and actions if a major tunnel incident occurs.

Participants from the road traffic control centre, emergency dispatch centre, emergency medical service, rescue service and police were included in the study. Data from four focus group sessions was analysed using thematic analysis.

The study revealed that the tunnel environment presents specific aspects of how common knowledge was produced related to lifesaving and safety. The themes structuring mechanisms to reduce uncertainty, managing information for initial priorities, aligning responsibilities without hampering each other's work and adjusting actions to manage distance, illustrated how common knowledge was produced as crucial aspects to a collaborative response. Organising management sites, grasping and communicating risks, accessing the injury victims, was challenged by the confined environment, physical distances and imbalance in access to information and preparedness activities in tunnel environments.

This study offers new insights of common knowledge, by illustrating a motive perspective on collaborative responses in tunnel incidents. Creating interoperability calls not just for readiness for action and tunnel safety, but also training activities acknowledging different interpretations and motives to further develop tunnel responses.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the crisis network response of European countries and the role played by defence organizations (DOs) during the early response phase of the pandemic, here set to encompass 75 days.

Published materials – reports, news and communications – provided by authorities and DOs were used. Some of the authors actively participated in national pandemic response networks. An exploratory approach and qualitative content analysis were applied. The data were collected in national languages from 13 European countries, and they were coded and analysed using the actors, resources and activities (ARA) framework.

This study identified three main categories of activity structures in which the DOs interacted with civilian members of response networks, health-related services, logistics services and public support services. These networks among actors were found within formal response systems and emergent networks. The DOs engaged as actors that provided a range of services when civil authorities could not cope with the huge demand for specific services and when resources were scarce in the initial response phase.

This study contributes by filling an important research gap with regard to the civil-military relations associated with the use of DO resources in the civil response to the pandemic crisis in Europe, which is described as an untraditional response. The ARA network approach provides a framework for arranging ARA and extends the wider civil-military network to expand the formal networks of the early crisis response. The study lays knowledge about the co-operation between civilian and military actors in different contexts and provides a broader understanding of the roles that DOs played in the response operations.

When catastrophic disasters recently occurred, digital volunteer networks formed by the public emerged across the globe. They aggregated, analyzed and visualized disaster data. Those volunteer networks sometimes shared their data with formal response organizations. Such data sharing and integration increased the capacity of formal response organizations for dealing with disasters. However, despite the emergence and contributions of digital volunteer networks, the literature has been focused primarily on the role of formal response organizations such as emergency management agencies and the Red Cross. The purpose of this paper is to describe how technical and organizational factors influence collaboration between digital volunteer networks and formal response organizations.

This research employs a case study method, focusing on the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

This study found that information technology and a shared understanding of disaster situations and how to address disasters are key determinants of collaboration between digital volunteer networks and formal response organizations.

This research is expected to contribute to building an integrated emergency response system in the information age.

Proper planning for the response phase of humanitarian relief can significantly prevent many financial and human losses. To this aim, a multi-objective optimization model is proposed in this paper that considers different types of injured people, different vehicles with determining capacities and multi-period logistic planning. This model can be updated based on new information about resources and newly identified injured people.

The main objective function of the proposed model in this paper is minimizing the unsatisfied prioritized injured people in the network. Besides, the total transportation activities of different types of vehicles are considered as another objective function. Therefore, these objectives are optimized hierarchically in the proposed model using the Lexicographic method. This method finds the best value for the first objective function. Then, it tries to optimize transportation activities as the second objective function while maintaining the optimality of the first objective function.

The performances of the proposed model were analyzed in different cases and its robust approach for different problems was shown within the framework of a case study. Besides, the sensitivity analysis of results shows the logical behavior of the proposed model against various factors.

The proposed methodology can be applied to find the best response plan for all crises.

In this paper, we have tried to use a multi-objective optimization model to guide and correct response programs to deal with the occurred crisis. This is important because it can help emergency managers to improve their plans.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of crisis communication and management along with its inclusion into the field and practice of emergency management. This paper also discusses the inclusion of nonprofit organizations and the need for these organizations to engage in crisis communication planning and strategy creation to address the diverse and numerous crises that nonprofits are at risk of experiencing.

This paper utilizes a systematic literature review of crisis communication planning tools and resources focused on nonprofit organizations to derive best practices and policy needs.

The resources analyzed provide foundational insight for nonprofit organizations to proactively develop plans and strategies during noncrisis periods to support their organization when a crisis occurs.

Limitations of this paper include limited academic research and practical resources related to nonprofit organizations and crisis communication planning. As such, several potential avenues for empirical research are discussed.

This paper provides considerations for nonprofit organizations engaging in crisis communication planning and aspects leaders need to partake in to reduce or eliminate the risk of facing an operational or reputational crisis.

This paper highlights the critical need to generate a crisis communication plan due to the diverse crises nonprofit organizations face and their connection to the emergency management structure. Understanding the crisis and utilizing a crisis communication plan allows nonprofit organizations a way to strategically mitigate the impact of a crisis while also providing essential services to their respective communities and maintain their overall stability.

This paper is unique in its analysis of crisis communication planning resources and creation of a planning framework to assist nonprofit organizations in their planning efforts.