Citation

L'Hermitte C, Nair NC. Disasters 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Faculty of Engineering, University of Auckland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12436

PMID

32270514

Abstract

This paper presents a conceptual research work designed to study how the sharing economy concept can be leveraged to increase the participation of commercial organisations (transporters, retailers, etc.) in disaster relief operations. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory, the academic literature on the sharing economy and blockchain, as well as existing resource sharing practices in both commercial and humanitarian logistics operations, this paper develops a theoretical framework for analysing the structure, benefits and prerequisites of a logistics sharing system in emergency responses. It also proposes to utilise the blockchain technology to facilitate the interactions and enhance trust between emergency responders and commercial organisations. It is argued that leveraging commercial logistics resources such as emergency supplies, transport capacity and storage space has the potential to improve the mobilisation and deployment of urgently needed relief items and increase the flexibility of emergency responses. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Social Exchange Theory; blockchain; disaster relief; emergency operations; humanitarian logistics; resource sharing; sharing economy; supply chain collaboration; trust