Services operations management and humanitarian logistics

This paper aims to examine the nature of service operations management and its application to the field of humanitarian logistics. The purpose of this paper is to assess developments in the humanitarian logistics (HUMLOG) literature over the last six years and to lay out some opportunities for the HUMLOG academic community in the area of services operations management.

A systematic, quantitative review, consistent with suggestions that the methodological rigor of reviews of the management literature should be strengthened, was undertaken.

The paper suggests that there is an opportunity for HUMLOG academics to engage in the service operations management arena and apply their knowledge and skills to answer fundamental questions in the areas of servitisation, service developments, service standardisation, and the role of humanitarian aid (HA) organisations as logistics service providers and to apply their expertise in business services.

The analysis was limited to 15 peer‐reviewed journals with the word “humanitarian” and/or any of the phrases “disaster”, “humanitarian aid”, “humanitarian logistics”, “humanitarian operations” or “humanitarian supply chains”, in either their titles, abstracts or full texts. The results of this review and analysis, however, provide sufficient evidence to support the main arguments advanced in the paper.

The paper contributes to the knowledge and applications of services operations management in HUMLOG research.