Theorising the microfoundations of analytics empowerment capability for humanitarian service systems

Shahriar Akter*, Saradhi Motamarri, Shahriar Sajib, Ruwan J. Bandara, Shlomo Tarba, Demetris Vrontis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The world is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Humanitarian service systems are being empowered to tackle this crisis through the use of vast amounts of structured and unstructured data to protect vulnerable individuals and communities. Analytics has emerged as a powerful platform to visualise, predict, and prescribe solutions to humanitarian crises, such as disease containment, healthcare capacity, and emergency food supply. However, there is a paucity of research on the microfoundations of the humanitarian analytics empowerment capability. As such, drawing on dynamic capability theory and by means of a systematic literature review and thematic analysis, this study proposes an analytics empowerment capability framework for humanitarian service systems. The findings show that analytics culture, technological sophistication, data-driven insights, decision making autonomy, knowledge and skills, and training and development are crucial components of the analytics empowerment’s capability to sense, seize, and remedy crisis situations. The paper discusses both theoretical and practical research implications.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAnnals of Operations Research
Early online date16 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 16 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Analytics empowerment capability
  • Humanitarian analytics
  • Microfoundations of dynamic capability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Decision Sciences
  • Management Science and Operations Research

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