Purpose – Some 40 years ago Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber published a seminal paper in which they discussed the “wicked problems” facing those who sought to develop solutions to urban planning challenges. Their work recognised that many of the decisions faced by modern management are...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance thought and practice on supply chain relationship building, in the context of humanitarian logistics, drawing on lessons from leading practitioners. Design/methodology/approach – The presentations were treated like data, enabling grounded...

Purpose – Planning inventories for emergency supplies such as bottled water, non‐perishable foods, batteries, and flashlights can be challenging for retailers situated within the projected path of a severe storm. The retailer's inventory decisions are complicated by the inherent volatility...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the appropriateness of system dynamics (SD) methodology as a tool for humanitarian decision makers to understand the effect of their decisions on humanitarian operations. The authors seek to present the initial stages and preliminary...

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...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the inefficiency problems in procurement operations in disaster relief logistics which are mainly due to the lack of coordination among less organized suppliers and partnerships. Such problems lead to poor responsiveness and hinder timely...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide future researchers with a framework for conducting research in the unique field of humanitarian logistics. Design/methodology/approach – The authors categorized humanitarian logistics research articles. Borrowing from the theory of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying issues of humanitarian disaster relief logistics in order to provide an understanding of the challenges facing humanitarian organisations in a wider context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a qualitative...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss and to help address the need for quantitative models to support and improve procurement in the context of humanitarian relief efforts. Design/methodology/approach – This research presents a two‐stage stochastic decision model with recourse...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific stages of the humanitarian logistics process in which the agile and lean principles are needed. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve this purpose, the authors propose an original conceptual framework and apply it to evidence...