Guest editorial

Citation

Richey, G. (2009), "Guest editorial", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 39 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm.2009.00539faa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 39, Issue 6

This second disaster recovery related special issue of the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management (IJPDLM) focuses specifically on human and humanitarian issues in disaster management and crisis strategic planning issues relevant to twenty-first century supply chain management and business logistics. I think, it is safe to say that this issue presents concerns that will strike close to home with all of us who have been through or experienced a crisis situation – be that hurricane Katrina, the 9-11 attack, the wars in the Middle East, recent earthquakes, the South East Asian tsunami, the swine flu pandemic, and the list goes on and on. We are fortunate in logistics and supply chain management to have a growing quorum of scholars looking seriously at human and humanitarian issues. The quality and importance of their disaster-related research prompted me to request an entire issue devoted to their work. I am again exceedingly proud of all the authors who submitted to this critically important area of research and wish we could have published all the high-quality submissions. I hope that all IJPDLM readers will read these three special issues and consider developing their streams of research to incorporate disaster and crisis issues.

This special issue represents a focus on human and humanitarian issues relevant to current and continued study in supply chain management and business logistics. As such this issue, titled Supply Chains in Times of Crisis: An Examination of Human and Humanitarian Supply Issues, focuses on the strategies currently being developed and employed by firms to better manage their human and humanitarian supply chains prior to, during, and following disaster events.

To date, little research has detailed the critical success factors important to the management of supply chain in times of crisis. When it comes to humanitarian issues, we are only scratching the surface at this point. Therefore, our first paper is a great starting point for this issue. This piece – “Critical success factors in the context of humanitarian aid supply chains” – was written by Stephen Pettit and Anthony Beresford. Their important study breaks ground by classifying the aspects most important to humanitarian and relief organizations relative to their providing of effective crisis responses. As such, they detail the variables which contribute to effective management of such organizations. In their examination of the literature, many avenues for potential research are uncovered. Possibly the most interesting contribution is that supply chain decision-making cannot be based solely on structure. This is due to the importance of culture in elements of supply chains. It is my belief that the issue of congruent culture within and across supply chains will help define how we craft supply chain strategy in the future. In fact, we are seeing a number of researchers move away from “orientation” views of strategy (structure) towards more “cultural” view (conduct) in attempts to impact performance.

One unfortunate fact about disaster and crisis issues is that we create many of them. One of the most upsetting and growing areas of concern is terrorism. The second paper in this issue comes to us from Carol Reade and is titled, “Human resource management implications of terrorist threats to firms in the supply chain.” This ground breaking study examines the relationship between terrorism and employee work attitudes in supply chain firms. Dr Reade examines associations involving employee sensitivity to terrorism and employee attitudes in supply chains. She captures this issue by examining nearly 900 managers in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is important as it is located in an environment where terrorism has been an issue for many years. It is possible that Sri Lanka has experienced – over several decades – what other countries are only beginning to experience. It should be noted that supply chain practitioners are continually calling for more supply chain human resource studies. To assist in developing this branch of research, this study concludes by offering implications and future directions for human resource management in supply chains.

The third paper was written by Richard Oloruntoba and Richard Gray and examines the importance of “Customer service in emergency relief chains.” Often the issue of customer service is ignored in times of crisis due to time pressures and the frantic pace of operations. This study developed a literature review of extant research in managing international emergency relief chains for superior customer service. Through qualitative examinations of common terms, the authors detail the importance of customer-service perspectives in the operations of international emergency relief chains. To my knowledge, this is the first comprehensive attempt to develop an understanding of “if” and “how” emergency relief chains may deliver customer service and satisfaction. I find it very interesting that Oloruntoba and Gray shed light on the development of supply chain relationships that do not always follow the principles of a relationship marketing theory (paradigm/view/perspective). Firms across these supply chains do not necessarily form relations based in trust, commitment, loyalty, or even simple co-operation. Perhaps, here they have discovered that the organizational “marriage” analogy is not nearly as universal as some business-to-business relationship scholars would suggest.

The final paper in this special issue gives us a transition to the third special issue on the scope of disaster issues and the need for future research in the area. This work by Gyöngyi Kovács and Karen Spens of the Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Research Institute details some of the needs relevant to future research by “Identifying challenges in humanitarian logistics.” I selected this paper to bridge the gap between the second and third special issues as it focuses on humanitarian logistics challenges in cross pollination with different types and phases of disaster relief and different types of humanitarian organizations. The study has yet another international twist as the focal country is Ghana. This is not surprising as the web of supply chains in humanitarian relief is continuing to grow. The authors contribute to the stakeholder theory and logistics literature by categorizing both natural and man-made causes and examining the important of the local presence in the focal country. This is consistent much of the domestic discussion in the first special issue. Their conceptual model developed through empirical examination lays the groundwork for extensive future research.

I hope all the readers of IJPDLM enjoy this issue and take to heart the importance of this topic area as they develop their research agendas over the next several years.

Glenn RicheyGuest Editor