Innovation in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management: a systematic review

Abstract

The COVID-19 global health crisis forced border closings, strained resources and tightened funding, forcing humanitarian organisations to innovate. This paper aims to identify gaps in the literature on innovation in humanitarian supply chains, and to develop an appropriate framework for future research through a systematic literature review. We use a systematic literature review approach and synthesis the discussion of innovation in humanitarian supply chains after reviewing 43 papers. The synthesis identifies the different contexts for and outcomes of innovation in humanitarian supply chains. Our findings indicate that research on innovation in humanitarian supply chains is an underdeveloped topic. Gaps we identified in regards to the humanitarian context are: (1) a limited discussion of the contribution by the beneficiary to the supply chain; (2) a limited discussion of reconstruction innovations; (3) a lack of study on field application for complex innovations; (4) the lack of discussion of the role of individual knowledge in humanitarian supply chain innovation and finally (5) a lack of study of position innovations where humanitarian organisations use supply chains as a way to market effectively towards donors.

Sustainable innovations for humanitarian operations in refugee camps

“…Based on key literature of Altay et al (2018) and Silvestre and Tirca (2019), we developed a theoretical framework through an abductive approach by continuously going back and forth between real-life observations (data collection) and theory matching. This process has helped us to understand the links between SOIs, the humanitarian context, necessary resources and performance objectives and the impact of SOIs on sustainability in refugee camps.…”

“…Based on the sustainable innovation framework by Silvestre and Tirca (2019) we assume that the implementation of SOIs in refugee camps will contribute to sustainability for refugees. We build our theoretical framework on Silvestre and Tirca‘s (2019) work and combine it with the work by Altay et al. (2018), Kunz and Gold (2017), Kunz and Reiner (2012), and Wieland (2021).…”

“…(6) Quality of Life for refugees ensures they have a perspective for a job, can participate in further education or build up resilience and empowerment (Tang, 2022) as well as long-term inclusion in the host communities. Therefore, for the development of our above illustrated framework at the OM level we considered the aspects of the framework about sustainable innovation by Silvestre and Tirca (2019), the so-called fit between beneficiaries' long-term requirements ( humanitarian context ), organizations' enabler ( resources ) and contingency factors ( performance objectives ) from the framework by Kunz and Gold (2017), the structure of the initial framework by Altay et al. (2018), as well as the strategic (and practice-proven) objectives of UNHCR.…”

“…Innovations in refugee camps are different from the commercial sector because of the specificity of the humanitarian world: humanitarian organizations face high demand uncertainty, use complex funding mechanisms and have to handle conflicting objectives of multiple stakeholders. Acknowledging this difference, we borrow existing theory from humanitarian operations (Altay et al. , 2018), and sustainable innovation (Silvestre and Tirca, 2019), and adapt it to the unique context of refugee camps.…”

“…Innovations in refugee camps are different from the commercial sector because of the specificity of the humanitarian world: humanitarian organizations face high demand uncertainty, use complex funding mechanisms and have to handle conflicting objectives of multiple stakeholders. Acknowledging this difference, we borrow existing theory from humanitarian operations (Altay et al, 2018), and sustainable innovation (Silvestre and Tirca, 2019), and adapt it to the unique context of refugee camps. As refugee camps are embedded in a complex political-economic and ecological environment reflecting socio-cultural norms of multiple actors and planetary boundaries (Matthews et al, 2016), we also consider these environments (Wieland, 2021) with their specific impacts on the link between operational innovations and performance outcomes for refugees.…”