1 Introduction

In the last decade, the humanitarian supply chain management field has gained significant attention from academics and policymakers (Kovacs & Spens, 2011a; Gupta et al., 2016; Altay et al., 2021). Humanitarian supply chain management has gained a significant footing after the 2004 Indian Tsunami. The disaster relief efforts following the 2004 Tsunami have received severe criticisms from experts due to poor supply chain management (Kovacs & Spens, 2011b; Oloruntoba et al., 2019). Since then, natural disasters are on the rise (Guha-Sapir & Scales, 2020). As more humanitarian crises are caused by disasters, supply chain research in humanitarian settings must continue to advance in such complex settings (Van Wassenhove, 2006; Starr & Van Wassenhove, 2014; Altay & Labonte, 2014). Following the definition of Burkart et al., (2016, p. 32), “the process of planning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials, as well as related information, from the point of origin to the point of consumption to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable people”, we argue that the design and management of humanitarian supply chain design is one of the most critical aspects of the humanitarian supply chain management. Humanitarian organizations need to respond to the crises on an urgent basis, providing aid to the victims including shelter, food, and other necessary items to alleviate the sufferings of the victims (Charles et al., 2016). In the past, humanitarian organizations have acted in a way to gain maximum benefits in designing the humanitarian supply chain networks. The humanitarian organizations have either positioned their inventories in the location where they are engaged in the relief operations or closer to the airport or the location where they gain a maximum tax advantage (Pettit & Beresford, 2009; Roh et al., 2015). These approaches might have limited the scope of exploring other possible locational advantages (Charles et al., 2016). Thus, the design and management of an optimal supply chain network for the humanitarian organizations that operate in a highly complex setup is a major challenge for the humanitarian practitioners and the policymakers.

1.1 Why focus on design and humanitarian supply chain?

In recent years the number of publications on humanitarian logistics/humanitarian supply chain management has increased significantly (see Fig. 1). Yet, few articles focusing on the humanitarian supply chain design suggest a significant research gap (see Fig. 2). Kovacs & Moshtari (2019) suggest that humanitarian studies should be more realistic and focus on real-world problems with a real data set. Charles et al., (2016) argue that the practitioners of humanitarian organizations find it difficult to grasp the underlying assumptions of the complex optimization problems. Moreover, in the case of robust and stochastic optimization, the practitioners drawn from the humanitarian organizations find it difficult to comprehend as it is often hard to assign the probabilities. Given these challenges, we followed the recommendation of Boyer & Swink (2008) that the multi-methods approach is the best way to tackle the complex challenges involved in the design and management of the humanitarian supply chain.

Fig. 1
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Publications by year (Humanitarian supply chain management)

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Fig. 2
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Publications by year (Humanitarian supply chain design)

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1.2 The need for the special issue

The special issue aimed to publish articles that will help advance the theoretical debates on how the humanitarian supply chain design can help tackle complex issues that often trouble the humanitarian relief workers during the disaster relief operations. The intent was clear to publish research articles that investigate the humanitarian supply chain design issues, identify various factors that influence the design and management of the humanitarian supply chain, and how these factors influence the humanitarian supply chain performance. There was no constraint on the type of submissions. These submissions could be analytical, conceptual, empirical studies relying on survey-based data, qualitative studies (i.e., multiple-case-based studies, action research, graph-theoretic approach, grounded theory, or ethnographic approach), or to an extent unique conceptual works that help push the theoretical boundary. Although, we encouraged the authors to address unique challenges faced by the humanitarian organizations in the wake of the exponential rise in disasters across the globe. The result was significant submissions of which we finally accepted 44 articles after multiple rounds of major revision. We have classified our accepted articles based on methods (see Fig. 3). Next, we provide the synthesis of the 44 contributions to theory and practice.

Fig. 3
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Classification scheme of the accepted articles (N = 44)

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1.3 Summary of contributions

Before summarising the accepted contributions, however, it is important to understand them in the context of the design and management of the humanitarian supply chain. To begin with, we need to understand first what are the main factors that shape the humanitarian supply chain design (see Fig. 4).

Fig. 4
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Factors of design and management of humanitarian supply chain

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Table 1 Summary of Literature
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Further, we have also received publications that provide a retrospective outlook of the humanitarian supply chain management field. For instance, articles A28, A29, A30, A31, A32, A33, and A34 offer many insights to the humanitarian scholars and theories to test in future studies. For instance, article A28 has attempted to address the human-related issues in the humanitarian supply chain. Similarly, article A29 and A33 provides a retrospective review of the humanitarian supply chain literature published in reputable outlets and explains how the scholars and their scholarly output have shaped the evolution of humanitarian supply chain management as a discipline. The author points out some research gaps that may be worth investigating. The articles A30, A31, and A32 provide a detailed thematic review such as disruptions and resilience (A30), the role of digital technologies in the humanitarian supply chain (A31), and the quality management issues in the humanitarian supply chain (A32).

2 Future research directions and opportunities

One of the main aims of organizing this special issue was to identify potential research gaps and further motivate scholars to advance the theoretical debates surrounding humanitarian supply chain design. In Table 1, an attempt has been made to identify some research gaps, however, we believe that the gaps should not be limited to these research gaps noted in Table 1. It must help address the overall challenges that humanitarian organizations face while dealing with such unpredictable events with limited resources and are subject to a high level of scrutiny from the media and political organizations. Therefore, we provide a list of areas that can be tackled in future studies. For instance, the coordination among the humanitarian organizations has received significant attention from the humanitarian communities (see Balcik et al., 2010; Dubey et al., 2019; Ruesch et al., 2022). Yet, coordination in the humanitarian supply chain context is still not well understood. Future research should explore the fit between different types of coordination and humanitarian supply chain strategies. Secondly, following the Haiti earthquake, the use of technology in the humanitarian aid supply chain has received significant attention (Besiou & Van Wassenhove, 2020). However, still, the use of technology in the humanitarian aid supply chain faces enormous challenges (Dubey, 2022). The future study must help address the technology and human interaction issues. Thirdly, innovation in the humanitarian supply chain in recent times has played a significant role in tackling the most complex humanitarian crises (Kovács & Falagara Sigala, 2021). Yet, the innovation in the humanitarian supply chain is not well understood. We believe future studies must help address this research gap. Finally, the role of leadership has been recognized as an important driver in shaping the humanitarian aid supply chain (Salem et al., 2019; Dubey et al., 2021). However, the leadership styles differ in different situations. The humanitarian supply chain literature has largely remained silent on this front with some exceptions (see, Salem et al., 2018, 2019; Dubey, 2022). There is a clear research gap that needs to be addressed to understand how different leadership styles can help tackle complex humanitarian relief operations (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
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Research opportunities

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3 Concluding remarks

There is an enormous interest in the design and management of humanitarian supply chains among the operations and supply chain management community. Yet, the design of the humanitarian supply chain is not well understood. Hence, to bridge the potential gaps that exist in theory and practice, we accepted articles on various aspects of the humanitarian supply chain design and management (see Table 1). Further, we have noted some potential research gaps that may help future scholars to shape their future research.