The four spheres of value co-creation in humanitarian professional services

Abstract

PurposeThe study focuses on the value co-creation processes in humanitarian professional services provision, analysing the key enabling factors of beneficiaries' participation, involved in long-term integration programmes (L-TIPs).Design/methodology/approachThrough an in-depth case study, the research looks at the practices of value co-creation in humanitarian professional services, considering both the perspectives of the professional service provider and beneficiary.FindingsIn professional services beneficiary's participation affects the success of the L-TIPs outcomes. Participation's enablers can be classified into four different spheres, each belonging to different elements of professional service: the beneficiary, the professionals, the service design and the external environment.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to the literature on humanitarian operations & supply chain management. By focussing on an understudied phase of the disaster life-cycle management, it contributes to the theory of value co-creation by exploring new issues and drivers of beneficiary's participation.Practical implicationsThis research has interesting implications for policymakers and humanitarian practitioners. First, guidelines for professionals' behaviours and interventions should be designed as well as new practices and strategies should be adopted. Second, governments should avoid concentrating L-TIPs in few big humanitarian centres.Originality/valueThe study focuses on an understudied stage of humanitarian operations, namely the L-TIPs, and uses this setting to build on the theory of value co-creation in professional services by identifying its enabling factors, clustered into four spheres, namely beneficiary, professional, service design and environmental.

Value co-creation in humanitarian service triads: service provision for beneficiaries

“…VCC can be rapidly increased if situations are handled effectively based on efficient implementation of emergency response procedures (Whybark, 2015). Pillitteri et al (2021) argue that VCC is determined by four factors: beneficiary features (trust, cultural motivation); environment features (such as local context); service design (e.g. stakeholder role); and humanitarian staff involvement.…”

“…Outcomes are likely to be better in humanitarian operations if the actors collaborate with each other (Bealt et al, 2016;Nurmala et al, 2017), for example by integrating knowledge and finding synergies within the community (Wetter-Edman et al, 2014;Greenhalgh et al, 2016;Taghizadeh et al, 2018;Baccaranni et al, 2019). Pillitteri et al (2021) argue that up-to-date research has not addressed the provision of services in humanitarian settings. They therefore used a dyadic perspective (professional service providers and beneficiaries) to investigate VCC, as first researchers to apply VCC theory to humanitarian contexts.…”

“…This increases the beneficiaries' motivation to participate, and thereby deliver an effective longterm service. In short, beneficiaries are becoming an active component in VCC, not merely recipients of the service (Haavisto and Goentzel, 2015;Cardoso et al, 2021;Pillitteri et al, 2021). In the light of this information, following proposition is offered:…”

Integrating Syrian refugee workers in global supply chains: creating opportunities for stable trade

“…First, from a theoretical point of view, this research contributes to the literature of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management by addressing the understudied area of the intersection between literature on refugee work and previous humanitarian supply chain studies (Oloruntoba and Banomyong, 2018;Seifert et al, 2018). This stream of research is concerned both with the actions taken towards refugee relief and disaster management (Kunz and Reiner, 2012) and with refugees' long-term integration (Pillitteri et al, 2021). This paper extends the latter by exploring refugee employment opportunities in the Middle Eastern and North African region, in particular in Jordan.…”

“…Second, unlike previous research on refugee integration, this study unpacks the perspective of refugee workers and their managers. Recent research highlighted the importance of refugee involvement and their long-term integration in the host country (Pillitteri et al, 2021). Thus, the identified refugee misconceptions regarding taking up work in garment manufacturing in Jordan suggests that refugee integration and relief programs will remain ineffective unless the perspective of the beneficiaries, in this case refugees, is taken into account.…”