Cooperation and coopetition among humanitarian organizations: A game theory approach

Abstract

Purpose

In the past two decades, the growth in the number and severity of disasters causes a rapid increase in the presence of NGOs for more effective response and efficient management of disasters. The NGOs must spend part of their resources on attracting funds to fulfill their humanitarian goals. However, limited number of donors and received contributions leads to a competition among NGOs for fundraising. Therefore, managing the relationship between these organizations and donors is very important. This paper aims to examine the competitive and coopetitive behavior of NGOs to model the interaction.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve this purpose, by using game theory, two mathematical programing models are presented to examine the two inter-organizational interactions among NGOs.

Findings

The results show that if the NGOs work together, all the organizations, donors and affected people will benefit, and the accrued disaster will be managed more efficiently.

Practical implications

The expressed benefits of coopetition of NGOs can be an incentive for them to work together to manage disasters effectively.

Originality/value

To the best of authors’ knowledge, no research has considered the impact of the coopetition of NGOs in achieving their social mission successfully. Therefore, this paper can be seen as a valuable resource in this field.

Citation

Fathalikhani, S., Hafezalkotob, A. and Soltani, R. (2018), "Cooperation and coopetition among humanitarian organizations: A game theory approach", Kybernetes, Vol. 47 No. 8, pp. 1642-1663. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-10-2017-0369