Examination of service triads in humanitarian logistics

• Pages: 595-619
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-09-2017-0221
• Date: 13 May 2019
• Published date: 13 May 2019
• Author: Graham Heaslip,Gyöngyi Kovács
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Examination of service triads

in humanitarian logistics

Graham Heaslip

School of Business, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway, Ireland and

Department of Supply Chain Management, Hanken Svenska Handelshogskolan,

Helsinki, Finland, and

Gyöngyi Kovács

HUMLOG Institute, Hanken Svenska Handelshogskolan, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore service triads in humanitarian logistics (HL). The study

uses agency theory to understand the dynamics between principal(s) and agent(s) and how contractual

arrangements influence the service buyer–service provider alignment in humanitarian service triads.

Design/methodology/approach –This is a case study on a specific humanitarian service triad, with

qualitative data being collected in a field study, utilising participant observation and in-context interview

techniques for rich data collection.

Findings –The findings highlight the importance of both contractual and relational contracts between the

service buyer, service provider and end customer –here donor (government), United Nations agency and

implementing partner (IP). The alignment of the three parties in the service triad is more easily achieved

through hybrid contracts rather than legal arrangements focussing on outcomes only.

Research limitations/implications –Results stem from a specific case study that constitutes a typical

humanitarian service triad. An increased understanding of managing services and their service providers in

the triadic context of outsourced service delivery adds to the body of knowledge in supply management.

Originality/value –This is the first examination of governance structures in contractual arrangements in a

humanitarian service triad. The research fills the gap in humanitarian literature regarding the interaction of

practitioners in HL, specifically, a service buyer organisation (a donor –government), a service provider (a UN

agency) and the end customer (an IP). The research is field based and is grounded in empirical observations

thus adding to the literature and offering insights to practice.

Keywords Europe, Case study, Buyer–supplier relationships, Customer service, Logistics services

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

How to manage services in a business-to-business (B2B) setting is becoming important as

increasing competition forces organisations to work more closely with external partners in

the supply chain (Williams et al., 2006; Tate et al., 2010; Van Iwaarden and Van der Valk,

2013). An example of such collaboration is the service triad, in which purchased services are

directly delivered by service providers to customers (Van Iwaarden and Van der Valk, 2013).

The perspective of humanitarian logistics (HL) as a service has been rare in management

studies (Heaslip, 2013; Kovács, 2014; Vega and Roussat, 2015). Delivery of the service (food,

shelter, water) only happens under extraordinary conditions (Altay and Green, 2006;

Heaslip, 2013; Matopoulos et al., 2014). Furthermore, beneficiaries of humanitarian supply

chains do not pay for the service (Oloruntoba and Gray, 2009; Kovács, 2014), as such, the

service triad is a fleeting structure rather than enduring one –but no less important for that.

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 30 No. 2, 2019

pp. 595-619

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-09-2017-0221

Received 1 September 2017

Revised 22 March 2018

16 July 2018

23 August 2018

Accepted 24 September 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article Heaslip, G. and Kovács, G.

(2019), “Examination of service triads in humanitarian logistics”,International Journal of Logistics

Management, Vol. 30 No. 2, did not reference a source drawn upon. The source is: Heaslip G., Kovács G.

(2018) Governance of Service Triads in Humanitarian Logistics. In: Kovács G., Spens K., Moshtari M.

(Eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Palgrave

Macmillan, London. The author guidelines for International Journal of Logistics Management state

that articles must be fully referenced. The authors sincerely apologise for this.

595

Service

triads in

humanitarian

logistics

A trend in thiscontext is that United Nations(UN) agencies and International Humanitarian

Organisations (IHOs) (e.g. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent) have

started to develop services that they offer each other (Kovács and Spens, 2011a, b; Heaslip,

2013; Kovács, 2014), yet research on this topic is virtually non-existent (Heaslip, 2013; Vega and

Roussat, 2015). Interestingly, most of the services UN agencies and IHOs offer to each other fall

under the realm of logistics (van Wassenhove, 2006), for example, the World Food Programme

(WFP) offerscustoms clearance, transportation andwarehousing servicesthrough the logistics

cluster to other organisations (WFP, 2013). For many UN and IHOs, the way to sustainable

competitive advantagemay not lie in changesin the product, promotion or pricingstrategies of

the organisation, but ratherin improving customer service within HL, ancillary services, such

as logistics and distribution (Oloruntoba and Gray, 2009; Kovács, 2014), customs clearance,

procurement and servitization (Heaslip, 2013).

In this paperwe adopt an agency theory (AT) perspective to gain a betterunderstanding of

how contractualagreements influence theservice triad in humanitariansupply chains. This is

in essence an organisation-to-organisation (O2O)triad between the donor (government), a UN

agency or IHO and the UN’sorIHO’s implementing partner (IP, another, usually local

organisation) in thefield. AT explicitly addresses under which contractual arrangements the

relationshipbetween a service buyer (theprincipal) and a service provider(the agent) operates

most efficiently (Eisenhardt, 1989; Tate et al., 2010). As observed by Van der Valk and

Van Iwaarden(2011) when service productionis outsourced there is a thirdactor involved: the

“end customer”(another agent). In this research, the service buyer(the principal) is, therefore,

confrontedwith two agents (the service provider,which is either an UN agency or an IHO, and

“end customer”, which in the humanitarian service triad would be the IP) who may

each have their own specific and possibly conflicting objectives (Niranjan and Metri, 2008;

Tate et al., 2010;Van der Valk and Van Iwaarden,2011). As Eisenhardt (1989,p. 58) points out,

“[…] the focus of agencytheory [centres] on determiningthe most efficient contract governing

the principal–agent relationship[…]”. Since AT explicitly addresses under whichcontractual

arrangementsthe relationship between a principaland an agent operates most efficiently this

research adopts the principal’s perspective within the triad.

This leads to the following research question:

RQ1. How can AT be applied in a service triad in HL in order to gain a better

understandingof how contractual arrangementsinfluence the service buyer–service

provider alignment in an O2O service triads?

To assist in answering this question, we use descriptive exploratory research to obtain

primary data directly from humanitarian in-country programs.

The contribution of this paper is fivefold. This is the first examination of governance

structures in contractual arrangements in a humanitarian service triad. An increased

understanding of managing services and their service providers in the triadic context of

outsourcedservice deliveryadds to the body of knowledge in supplymanagement. Second,the

researchfills the gap in the humanitarian literature regarding the interaction of practitionersin

HL, specifically, a servicebuyer organisation(a donor –government),a service provider (a UN

agency) and the end customer (an IP). Third, this is the first application of AT in HL. Fourth,

the research is field based and is grounded in empirical observations thus adding to the

literature and offering insights to practice. Finally, we further argue that insights from this

setting can provide insights to other sectors with si milar structural properties.

The paper is structured as follows. The following section establishes a theoretical

foundation for studying governance in service triads. This section begins with an

introduction to service triads. A discussion of service triads in HL follows. Next, a

description of AT is presented, this theory development section concludes with propositions

that will be tested. The results are discussed in the next section followed by conclusions.

596

IJLM

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