Maria Besiou

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Kühne Logistics University

Purpose The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to draw insights from the rich literature on humanitarian operations efforts to combat human trafficking; second, to inspire humanitarian operations researchers to work more on human anti-trafficking. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper inspired by recent relevant reports, the...

Sustainability issues are becoming more complex. Private companies respond to the new challenges with the pursuit of corporate social responsibility. One way to contribute to society and to deal with the increased pressure is by engaging in cross-sector partnerships with non-profit organizations. But under which conditions are these partnerships su...

In this essay, our analysis takes important insights on diversity and inclusion from the behavioral literature but critically contextualizes them against the reality of humanitarian operations. Humanitarian operations are characterized by system immanent diversity, particularly between local and expatriate aid workers, who not only bring valuable d...

African logistics and supply chain management capabilities are essential to the performance of the continent's commercial and humanitarian supply chains. This study reviewed the challenges for researchers and practitioners in advancing logistics and supply chain performance through developing appropriate capabilities. A literature review and landsc...

Supply chains are dynamic and complex systems. This holds particularly true for humanitarian supply chains that operate under strong uncertainty. In view of an ever‐growing gap of unmet humanitarian needs, it is essential to gain a better understanding of the behavior of humanitarian supply chain systems. Despite a growing academic output in this f...

Purpose The research objective is to study the relevance of supply chain management in the humanitarian context, analyze supply chain expenditures and identify major cost-saving potentials and future research directions. Design/methodology/approach Our research design integrates exploratory and inductive research approaches that are based on exist...

The severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the consequences of supply chain disruptions into our everyday life. Organizations operating in the humanitarian space are confronted with supply chain risks in the majority of their programs. Building and strengthening supply chain resilience, in particular in the context of humanitarian opera...

In 2020, the world started a fight against a pandemic that has severely disrupted commercial and humanitarian supply chains. Humanitarian organizations (HOs), like the World Food Programme (WFP), adjusted their programs in order to manage this pandemic. One such program is cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which is used to bolster beneficiaries' f...

Disasters mobilize hundreds of organizations, but coordination among them remains a challenge. This is why the United Nations has formed clusters to facilitate information and resource exchange among humanitarian organizations. Yet, coordination failures in prior disasters raise questions as to the effectiveness of the cluster approach in coordinat...

During emergencies humanitarian supply chains need to respond swiftly, very often without time for good planning. That may end up in excessive waste and emissions. This short‐term focus on saving people’s lives during disaster responses may harm communities and the planet in the long‐run. Even long‐term (development) focus on improving the life con...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to show that the current complexity of humanitarian operations has only increased the usefulness of system dynamics (SD) in helping decision-makers better understand the challenges they face. Design/methodology/approach A critical analysis to evaluate how SD methodology has been applied to humanitarian operatio...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the current application of organization theory (OT) in the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) and identify the future OT-based research opportunities that can advance knowledge of humanitarian operations. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a systematic literature review methodology to identify th...

Funding for international humanitarian aid falls far behind demand for disaster response, hampering the operations of international humanitarian organizations (IHOs). One remedy to close this gap is to increase the effectiveness of fundraising activities for IHOs. This remedy means spending as little as possible in fundraising activities but, at th...

The number of people affected by disasters has increased over the past decades, whereas funding has declined. The need for effective humanitarian aid is, therefore, larger than ever. Humanitarian organizations have recognized the critical role of supply chain management in reaching beneficiaries, and they have introduced commercial routines and bes...

We study volunteer management at a charity storehouse operated by a large faith‐based organization. The storehouse runs entirely on volunteer efforts. We investigate the role of volunteer experience and storehouse congestion in the preparation of orders using a multi‐method approach. First, we conduct a field study to explore these relationships an...

International humanitarian organizations (IHOs) always strive to improve their operational performance in the field. While anecdotes from practice suggest that IHO field office leadership plays a crucial role in this regard, these claims have not been deeply substantiated by primary data. In response, we collected survey data from 125 humanitarian...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) as the backbone of the humanitarian operations. It further proposes feasible ways to overcome some of the main supply chain challenges identified by practitioners to achieve cost efficient and effective operations. Design/methodology/approach...

Purpose Following a large-scale disaster, medical assistance is a critical component of the emergency response. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Academic and practitioner literature is used to develop a framework studying the effectiveness of the humanitarian medical supply chain (HMSC). The framework is validate...

The humanitarian caseload is growing rapidly while funds are declining. The sector clearly will have to do more with less. Optimizing constrained resources is the strength of OR. Our discipline can strongly support humanitarian practitioners provided it works on pressing real problems and translates its research into easily implementable tools whos...

Many humanitarian aid workers receive training prior to being dispatched into the field, but they often encounter challenges that require additional learning and creativity. Consequently, aid organizations formally support collaboration among the expatriate and local workers in a field office. At best, those aid workers would not only exploit their...

Power is Everywhere draws on ten years of peer-reviewed research, interviews and case studies by The Stakeholder Media Project, based in the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre in Fontainebleau, France. In five chapters, the book provides a blueprint for the conception and operation of media that serve stakeholder groups – communities of interest who a...

Humanitarian organizations (HOs) supply goods and services to people in need, using funds provided by donors supporting their mission. Funding systems, funds, and their characteristics have a very strong impact on the success of HOs in fulfilling their and donor needs. A wide variety of articles exists on humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM)...

Sustainability issues are becoming more complex. Private companies respond to the new challenges with the pursuit of corporate social responsibility. One way to contribute to society and to deal with the increased pressure is by engaging in cross-sector partnerships with nonprofit organizations. But under which conditions are these partnerships suc...

Photovoltaic (PV) waste is expected to significantly increase. However, legislation on producer responsibility for the collection and recovery of PV panels is limited to the European Union (EU) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive Recast, which lays down design, collection, and recovery measures. Academic knowledge of closed-loop sup...

Chronic diseases are lifelong medical conditions that evolve over the lifespan of a person. Even if they can be treated and controlled, their long-term effects pose great pressure to the global health supply chains. Motivated by the need for active and sustainable interventions in the healthcare sector, we provide a first-effort approach to capture...

Companies seek sustainability by combining the quest for profitability with the pursuit of social responsibility. Since socially responsible operations are characterized by the presence of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals, applying classical optimization models would seem premature; we first need to capture the behavior of the entire sy...

Chronic diseases are lifelong medical conditions that evolve over a person’s lifespan. Even if they can be treated and controlled, their long-term effects pose great pressure to the global healthcare sector. Motivated by the need for active and sustainable interventions in the healthcare sector, we develop a system dynamics model to capture the chr...

The work of international humanitarian organizations (IHOs) frequently involves operating in remote locations, decentralized decision-making, and the simultaneous implementation of development and disaster response programs. A large proportion of this work is funded by `earmarked’ donations, since donors often exhibit a preference for the programs...

Large-scaled construction projects with their complex logistical processes of transport, handling and storage material to site, on site and from site bear significant environmental impacts. Such impacts include use of land, production of waste and emissions. In this paper, we investigate—by using a case study approach—how a well-planed implemented...

This article seeks to model the agenda-setting strategies of stakeholders equipped with online and other media in three cases involving protests against multinational corporations (MNCs). Our theoretical objective is to widen agenda-setting theory to a dynamic and nonlinear networked stakeholder context, in which stakeholder-controlled media assume...

Media controlled by stakeholder communities and groups, or “stakeholder media,” can exercise powerful influence on the strategic agendas of firms. Stakeholder media can be different and in some ways stronger than the influence of traditional news media. This article identifies strategies through which stakeholder groups use their own media to achie...

Regulatory measures that hold producers accountable for their products at end of life are increasingly common. Some of these measures aim at generating incentives for producers to design products that will be easier and cheaper to recover at the postconsumer stage. However, the allocation of recovery costs to individual producers, which can facilit...

The world becomes increasingly complex and problems tend to be broader and multidisciplinary. At the same time, OR/MS research seems to be narrowing down, building even more on analytical models. The flip side is the risk that OR/MS is increasingly diverging from reality and that its dominant paradigm becomes insufficient to guide us in understandi...

For decades, if not for centuries, collection of end-of-use products was performed by scavengers, especially if these products could be reused or if there was value to be recovered. Nowadays, most societies in their effort to increase availability of natural resources and avoid landfills have displaced scavengers by formal waste collection systems....

International Humanitarian Organizations (IHO) often implement relief and development programs simultaneously. With headquarters in Europe or USA and programs (operations) in developing countries, IHO are frequently decentralized. Moreover, IHO program delivery is funded by donors and funding is typically earmarked for specific programs increasing...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the appropriateness of system dynamics (SD) methodology as a tool for humanitarian decision makers to understand the effect of their decisions on humanitarian operations. The authors seek to present the initial stages and preliminary findings of a SD model used to analyze a well‐defined subsystem o...

This article considers how “stakeholder media” – media produced and controlled by stakeholders with the purpose of affecting public opinion or opinions of other actors toward issues or organisations – can exert powerful influences on firms by setting the public agenda and framing a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in ways...

This article applies system dynamics analysis to understand the interaction of actors whose opinions and activities impacted on corporate initiatives in the Danone boycott of 2001 (Hunter et al. 2008) and the “Beyond Petroleum” branding campaign of BP P.L.C. in 2001-2005 (Hunter et al. 2010). The analysis shows a complex interaction of 59 feedback...

Waste electrical and electronic equipment is one of the major world-wide waste streams triggering the emergence of environmental strategies. Environmental regulations, closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) activities and design-for-environment (DfE) practices are environmental friendly strategies being implemented by governments and industry. In this pap...

Nowadays, the worldwide production of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is consequently increasing, reducing both resources and landfills. In this manuscript, we investigate the significance of the factors that comprise the environmental sustainability strategies (environmental legislation and green image) and the operational features of th...

a b s t r a c t In this paper we examine the impact of ecological motivation and technological innovations on the long-term behavior of a closed-loop supply chain with recycling activities. Ecological motivation manifests through legislation and green image factor, whereas technological innovations manifest through design for environment. We adopt...

This article examines the impact of environmental legislation on sustainability that manifests through the conservation of natural resources and landfills. The developed model is implemented to a real world closed-loop supply chain with recycling activities of electrical equipment in Greece. The motivation behind this research is to examine whether...

Sustainable supply chains have emerged as an area of growing attention due to the development of "Ecological motivation" and Sustainable development, along with technological and economical trends. Ecological motivation is a strategic issue of increased importance for the profitability of sustainable supply chains due to companies' interest in thei...

Sustainable development, along with technological and economical trends dictate the development of efficient "closed-loop supply chains". "Ecological motivation" is a strategic issue of increased importance for the profitability of reverse supply chains due to companies' concerns about their "green image" and environmental legislation. Ecological m...

Sustainable development, along with technological and economical trends have led to the development of efficient "closed-loop supply chains". In this context, "ecological motivation" is a strategic issue of increased importance for the profitability of reverse supply chains due to companies' concerns about their "green image" and environmental legi...