Title: Humanitarian inter-organisational collaboration network: investigating the impact of network structure and information and communication technology on organisation performance

Authors: Louis-Marie Ngamassi Tchouakeu; Carleen Maitland; Andrea Tapia; Lynette Kvasny

Addresses: College of Business, Prairie View A&M University, P.O. Box 519, MS 2310, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA ' College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA ' College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA ' College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Abstract: In this paper, we report on a study that empirically investigates the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) resources and network structure on performance in humanitarian organisations that respond to natural disasters. We combine two theoretical lenses, resource-based view (RBV) and social network, to analyse data collected through multiple sources including web search, surveys and semi-structured interviews among members of the GlobalSympoNet, a community of interest of organisations engaged in humanitarian information management and exchange. Our findings suggest that organisations that possess a greater variety of ICT and greater network centrality experience superior levels organisational performance. Higher levels of network density also enhance the organisational performance of these organisations.

Keywords: inter-organisational networks; humanitarian organisations; social networks; information and communications technology; ICT; information technology; organisational performance; inter-organisational collaboration; natural disasters; disaster management; resource-based view; RBV; emergency management; information management; information exchange.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2013.054196

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2013 Vol.19 No.1/2/3, pp.19 - 43

Received: 27 Jun 2012
Accepted: 02 Oct 2012

Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

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