Karen Spens

Humanitarian logistics in disaster relief operations

Purpose – This paper aims to further the understanding of planning and carrying out logistics operations in disaster relief.Design/methodology/approach – Topical literature review of academic and practitioner journals.Findings – Creates a framework distinguishing between actors, phases, and logistical processes of disaster relief. Drawing parallels of humanitarian logistics and business logistics, the paper discovers and describes the unique characteristics of humanitarian logistics while recognizing the need of humanitarian logistics to learn from business logistics.Research limitations/implications – The paper is conceptual in nature; empirical research is needed to support the framework. The framework sets a research agenda for academics.Practical implications – Useful discussion of the unique characteristics of humanitarian logistics. The framework provides practitioners with a tool for planning and carrying out humanitarian logistics operations.Originality/value – No overarching framework for humanit...

Abductive reasoning in logistics research

Purpose – To construct a framework for exploring and discussing the use of different research approaches – deductive, inductive and abductive – in logistics.Design/methodology/approach – A review of research articles in three major logistics journals (International Journal of Logistics Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management and Journal of Business Logistics) from 1998 to 2002.Findings – Recognizes the dominance of deductive research in logistics, and the need for more inductive and, in particular, abductive research for theory development. Discusses the use of the abductive research approach in logistics.Research limitations/implications – Keywords searches led to a small sample size; more thorough content analysis is needed to apply the findings from the constructed framework.Practical implications – Useful source of information on the three different research approaches, their possibilities and implications for research.Originality/value – The abductive researc...

Identifying challenges in humanitarian logistics

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges of humanitarian logisticians with respect to different types of disasters, phases of disaster relief and the type of humanitarian organization. A conceptual model is constructed that serves as a basis to identify these challenges.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a country as a case, namely Ghana. Structured and unstructured data are collected in a workshop with humanitarian logisticians, and complemented with presentations of humanitarian logisticians, as they perceive their challenges. Disaster statistics and country profiles are used as secondary data.Findings – The paper shows that some disasters defy a categorization between natural and man‐made causes. Challenges of humanitarian logisticians depend not only on the disaster at hand, but also on the local presence of their organization. The most emphasized challenge is the coordination of logistical activities. Challenges can be managed better if attributing them to di...

A content analysis of research approaches in logistics research

Purpose – Based on a framework developed by Kovacs and Spens, this paper seeks to assess the use of the three different research approaches in logistics research; discuss the use of different research methods within the three research approaches; find and discuss applications of the abductive research approach to logistics problems.Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis is used in order to categorize the different research approaches. While content analysis commonly uses smaller units such as paragraphs, sentences, words or characters, this study used entire articles as the unit of analysis. The scope of the review encompassed five years (1998‐2002) of articles in IJLM, IJPDLM and JBL. A total of 378 articles was reviewed and categorized.Findings – The findings of the study corroborate earlier studies regarding the main research approach used in logistics. Published logistics research is hypothetico‐deductive, with a strong emphasis on using survey methods. Nevertheless, inductive as well as abduc...

Trends and developments in humanitarian logistics – a gap analysis

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present current trends and developments in humanitarian logistics (HL) practice, research, and education, and analyze the gaps between these. The article serves as an update on previous literature reviews in HL.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is primarily conceptual and develops a framework for analyzing trends and gaps between HL research, education, and practice. Data are compiled through keyword searches, publicly available bibliographies, and web sites of educational institutions, as well as drawing on material from practitioner workshops, tutorials, conference presentations, and personal communication with practitioners and educators.Findings – Gaps are revealed in HL practice, research, education, as well as between these. Few education programs to date consider the skill needs of humanitarian logisticians, but future trends in practice and research can be used to develop them further. More empirical and practice‐near research is called for at the same t...

Developing lean and agile health care supply chains

Purpose – The objective of this exploratory paper is to find out what is important to consider when developing a supply chain in health care, what is required in order to establish a supply chain o ...

Using simulation to increase efficiency in blood supply chains

Purpose – The overall aim of the research presented is to improve blood supply chain management in order to use the scarce resource of blood more efficiently. Computer simulation is used as a tool for increasing efficiency in blood supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – An application of discrete event simulation modeling in the health‐care sector, more specifically in the area of blood transfusion services. The model has been refined in cooperation with medical expertise as it is vital that practitioners are closely involved so that the model can be tested against their understanding as it develops.Findings – Decision makers can make better and less risky decisions regarding changes in the blood supply chain based on the knowledge created by simulation experiments. Simulation modeling can be used to make complex and chaotic systems comprehensible and more efficient. In health care, this means that scarce resources can be allocated better, and thereby simulation can aid in increasing the overall qual...

Towards a humanitarian logistics knowledge management system

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to offer a conceptual model and an associated taxonomy to support the development of a body of knowledge in support of the logistic response to a natural or man‐made disaster.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review, the paper outlines the difficulties associated with the logistic response to a disaster, before discussing a generic approach to knowledge management. The literature review is then used to identify two potential models (the Supply‐Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) and the UK Defence Lines of Development (LOD)), which are then further developed and integrated in order to underpin a knowledge taxonomy.Findings – The paper proposes a model that combines both the SCOR and LOD models into a unified approach as a first step towards the development of a broad‐ranging reference source to support humanitarian logisticians and, thereby, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to future disasters.Research limitations/implications – As...

Humanitarian logistics and supply chain management: the start of a new journal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a brief overview of the field of humanitarian logistics and supply chain management and outline the scope of the new Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (JHLSCM). It further aims to highlight the variety of humanitarian logistics research and summarize the articles in the inaugural issue.Design/methodology/approach – Results from an e‐mail survey with editorial board members are presented. The survey is used to further shape the scope of JHLSCM.Findings – The journal draws on a variety of research streams in humanitarian logistics. This is seen as its richness but also as a challenge.Research limitations/implications – Humanitarian logistics is an emerging field. There is still a lack of good empirical research and research with rigor as well as relevance. More research needs to be done in developing countries and by researchers from these.Practical implications – Even though there has been collaboration between humanitarian and c...

Knowledge sharing in relief supply chains

Relief Supply Chain Management (SCM) is rapidly gaining interest in academia at the same time as the number of actors in humanitarian aid and the number of natural disasters are increasing. In order to bring relief to beneficiaries, cooperation between relief supply chains as well as within supply chains is needed. However, at the same time as cooperating, many of the actors in the supply chains compete for the same financial resources (donations). Therefore, cooperation as well as competition, i.e., coopetition, are evident features in relief supply chains, which impact on the incentive to share knowledge among actors. This paper therefore aims at increasing the understanding of knowledge sharing in and between relief supply chains. The importance of Communities of Practice (CoPs) is highlighted in this context, shedding light on the way knowledge sharing is taking place across relief supply chains. After discussing existing CoPs, suggestions are made for how these can be used to enhance knowledge sharing. The paper concludes with avenues for further research.