Network performance assessment for collaborative disaster response

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to propose a modified network performance assessment method to address issues of coordination among organizations in the context of disaster response. Design/methodology/approach -The study introduces affiliation networks to map disaster response system integrated with task/function and unit identifications. The study also assesses performance in two successive procedures including ineffective networks identification and assessment on organizational effectiveness. Findings -The study emphasizes problems in the current emergency management system in China with a focus on Sichuan earthquake experience. Specifically, some problems with the traditional central planning and control mechanisms in coordination across boundaries are highlighted, including participants' inexact perception of information or resource accessibility, confusion of functional designation of organizations. Originality/value -The study builds network performance assessment method to other contexts where different emergency management systems exist and modifies them to facilitate quick complex networks evaluation. The theoretical insights from affiliation networks and cognitive accuracy provide additional contributions to the literature.

Information Technology, Mutual Trust, Flexibility, Agility, Adaptability: Understanding Their Linkages and Impact on Humanitarian Supply Chain Management Performance

“…These results also indicate that the organizations need to improve on stakeholders’ communication outside their teams during emergency situations. Several studies (Eller, Gerber, & Branch, ; Guo & Kapucu, ; Kabra, Ramesh, & Arshinder, ; Kabra & Ramesh, ; Raju & Becker, ) have reported the need for joint working among the actors such as local community, police, aid agencies, relief organizations, emergency medical service providers and the government. Hence, regular communication, coordination and collaboration among these diverse stakeholders is necessary to improve the disaster response (Robinson, ).…”

The COVID-19 response system and collective social service provision. Strategic network dimensions and proximity considerations

“…Thanks to interactions, network members share resources and commonly learn to face the challenges of critical situations. The pressures and evolution of the critical context determine the complexity and changes of these relational architectures in terms of objectives, operational levels or geographies (Guo and Kapucu 2015 ). Previous research shows that during critical events, response networks are very sparsely distributed and there are a significant amount of organizations, dyads, or triads isolated from the other actors in the network (Kapucu 2005 ; Abbasi 2014 ).…”

“…We build on the idea that the role of the different socio-economic actors within the response network and their interactions will shape their contribution to mitigate the effects and overcome an unexpected health outbreak (Hossain and Kuti 2010 ). Although literature in disasters and emergency recently delved into the role of the attributes of response networks (Kapucu et al 2011 , 2020 ; Guo and Kapucu 2015 ; Georgalakis 2020 ; Mingxuan et al 2020 ), certain debates remain open, such as the rationales underlying the existence of sub-network structures or the relative weight of organizational similitudes in the creation of linkages (Kim et al 2019 ).…”

“…Being aware that transdisciplinary research represents a cornerstone for understanding and solving systemic problems in crisis (Farmaki and Christou 2019 ), both network approach to emergency (Kapucu et al 2011 , 2020 ; Guo and Kapucu 2015 ; Georgalakis 2020 ; Mingxuan et al 2020 ) and social services (Akehurst 2008 ; Bendle and Patterson 2010 ; Sanzo et al 2015 ; Proença et al 2018 ) are adopted. In line with methodological calls (Scott and Laws 2010 ), social network analysis-SNA tools (see Borgatti et al 2018 ) are applied to analyze traces of organizations' relationships found in traditional and digital regional media using content analysis.…”

The Dynamics of an Interorganizational Emergency Management Network: Interdependent and Independent Risk Hypotheses

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Strengthening interdependent relationships that rely on mutual aid matters in increasing the potential benefits and decreasing the relational risk caused by partners' behavior and deriving from uncertainty among emergency management organizations across sectors. Forging direct ties with other emergency management organizations drives the stronger structural benefits of a clustered structure, highlighting associated benefits such as technical resource sharing and the coordination of consensus‐based joint activities. A close‐knit emergency management network based on direct collaborative ties is critical for securing communication channels to build resilient communities at the local level, enhancing effective information and resource mobilization in emergency response and recovery operations.

A growing body of research has highlighted the importance of interorganizational emergency management (EM) networks (Andrew and Carr ; Choi and Brower ; Guo and Kapucu ; Kapucu ; Kapucu and Hu ; Waugh ; Waugh and Streib ), but still few researchers have identified how the patterns of social relations among diverse local organizations are changed by a disaster (Hu, Knox, and Kapucu ). The changes in the collaborative structure reflect the gap between planned and response EM networks (Song and Jung ).…”