Abstract

For years, humankind has been facing various disasters of which logistics has a crucial role for alleviating sufferings of vulnerable people, who are isolated and in need of basic supplies. Owing to the increasing importance of logistics in humanitarian operations, logistics service providers (LSPs) have recently become more prominent. Yet, only a few LSPs have the capabilities and mechanisms to offer operational solutions for humanitarian relief. Also, the conducted extensive literature review makes evident that the existence of a limited number of normative research reveals a barrier about what LSPs can bring into the humanitarian field. Accordingly, why LSPs are particularly important in the humanitarian supply chain and how LSPs manage their activities and resources in humanitarian operations become the main questions to be addressed. Thus, this study seeks to explore humanitarian operations of LSPs from different dimensions, enabled by Business Model Canvas (BMC). In this sense, the obtained findings clarify both similar and different viewpoints of diverse LSPs when mapped against the BMC. Consequently, the categorised interrelated information presented through the cross-case synthesis provide novelty to advance insights both on strategic missions of LSPs in humanitarian relief operations and on the usage of BMC beyond its common commercial implementations.

摘要

多年来，人类一直面临着各种灾难，其中物流对于缓解孤立无援、急需基本物资的弱势群体的痛苦起着至关重要的作用。由于物流在人道主义行动中的重要性日益增加，物流服务提供商 (LSP) 最近变得更加突出。然而，只有少数 LSP 有能力和机制为人道主义救援提供可操作的解决方案。此外，广泛的文献回顾表明，有限数量的规范研究的存在揭示了 LSP 可以为人道主义领域带来什么的障碍。因此，为什么 LSP 在人道主义供应链中尤为重要，以及 LSP 如何在人道主义行动中管理其活动和资源成为需要解决的主要问题。因此，本研究旨在通过商业模式画布 (BMC) 从不同维度探索 LSP 的人道主义行动。从这个意义上说，当与 BMC 进行映射时，所获得的发现阐明了不同 LSP 的相似和不同观点。因此，通过跨案例综合呈现的分类相关信息为深入了解 LSP 在人道主义救援行动中的战略任务以及 BMC 在其常见商业实施之外的使用提供了新颖性。