Disaster Labs: How American States Use Partnerships to Manage the Unthinkable

Abstract

Disaster Labs explores how state governments partner with businesses and nonprofits to manage large-scale emergencies in California, Florida, New York, and Virginia. For these disaster- management collaborations to continue, state governments, businesses, and nonprofits must plan now for their future. These collaborations also need the freedom to shape their partnerships in each of their unique state environments. Each state has distinct attributes that make state-level partnerships attractive. These range from differing types of disasters, political environments, nonprofit sectors, and commercial entities. Without undue federal interference, these state-level, public- private partnerships work best to achieve results and provide relief to disaster-prone areas.

The flip side of the coin: Perils of public–private disaster cooperation

“…While research and debates on the pitfalls of public‐private disaster cooperation generally discuss the issue from the perspective of public authorities, highlighting implications such as profiteering, loss of transparency and accountability (Tierney, 2015), ambiguous allocation of responsibility (Bergling et al, 2016) and tensions between public and financial interests (Busch & Givens, 2013; Givens, 2020), we have shown that the involvement of private actors in disaster management is a tricky business also for private actors. Would they be paid for their involvement?…”

“…When the Country Administrative Board appealed to the public to donate resources it was strongly criticized in the media (Nilsson & Enander, 2020). Public-private cooperation may thus have helped the In many ways, then, this public-private cooperation was a win-win for all parties involved, in terms of no-cost marketing exposure for firms and access to scarce goods and services for public sector agencies (see Givens, 2020). However, in their mission to support the public responders as their subsuppliers, the e-volunteers became increasingly enthusiastic and hot headed.…”

“…In many ways, then, this public–private cooperation was a win–win for all parties involved, in terms of no‐cost marketing exposure for firms and access to scarce goods and services for public sector agencies (see Givens, 2020). However, in their mission to support the public responders as their subsuppliers, the e‐volunteers became increasingly enthusiastic and hot headed.…”

“…Private companies not only pursue market opportunities in disasters but also contribute through charitable response activities (McKnight & Linnenluecke, 2016), and the third peril of public–private disaster cooperation concerns business donations to the public response. Donations in disasters may be driven by companies' strategic motives to demonstrate goodwill, look socially responsible (Patten, 2008, p. 599), and gain reputational benefits (Adekola & Clelland, 2020, p. 51) and positive marketing exposure (Givens, 2020, p. 177) in the hope that market will reward them (Muller & Kräussel, 2011, p. 912).…”

“…1.1 | The Swedish crisis management system and the private sector This article contributes to existing research on public-private disaster cooperation in a number of ways. First, while most studies on resilience and public-private disaster cooperation explore disaster management outside of Europe (e.g., Abou-Bakr, 2012;Givens, 2020), this study generates insights into how these internationally identified policy trends manifest in Sweden. The Nordic model (including that in Sweden) is known for combining 'free market capitalism with rather heavy state regulation and re-distribution policies' (Pursiainen, 2018, p. 632), so it is very different from the policy climate in more market-oriented country contexts such as the United States (as described by Tierney, 2015).…”