Development of the academic contribution to humanitarian logistics and supply chain management Editorial overview Management Research News, Volume 32, Issue 11 Peter H. Tatham Centre for Human Systems, Cranfield University, DCMT Shrivenham, Swindon, UK Karen M. Spens Department of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics, Supply Chain Management and Corporate Geography, Helsinki, Finland, and David Taylor Logistics and Operations Management Section, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff, UK Effective delivery of humanitarian aid is an issue that is becoming increasingly important as part of the overall response to disasters, not least as there is strong evidence that both natural and man-made disasters around the world are increasing in terms of their magnitude, frequency and impact (UN, 2006). For example, annual disasters in 2000-2004 were 55 per cent higher than between 1995 and 1999. The number of people affected by natural disasters has also increased, 33 per cent more between 2000 and 2004 compared to the 1995 to 1999 period (CRED, 2008). By the same token, the developing scenario of world food shortages that has started to appear in 2007-2008 is creating increasing demand for humanitarian relief and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has estimated that 100million extra people will require food aid in 2008 alone. Furthermore, as world stocks of major food commodities such as wheat, rice and soya continue to diminish, greater pressure will be put on aid supply chains as future emergencies arise. The scale of such increases underlines the importance of the increased attention that is being given to emergency relief response operations (IFRC, 2005; Fritz Institute, 2005; Balcik and Beamon, 2008). As the demand for assistance increases, it is important that not only is more aid made available, but that the logistics systems and supply chains for delivering the required commodities from source-of-origin to recipients are both effective and efficient. Unfortunately, there is clear evidence that many humanitarian supply chains are less efficient than they could be, for example the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in 2006 that “Over the past few years, the international response to humanitarian emergencies has demonstrated that the present system does not always meet the basic needs of affected populations in a timely and effective manner” (OCHA, 2006). It is also clear that organising efficient and effective humanitarian supply chains is no easy task. The environment into which aid is delivered is almost always challenging in the extreme for a wide variety of reasons including social and political upheaval or military conflict. At the same time there are often, potentially, very significant operational difficulties in managing logistics and supply chain activity ranging from degradation or destruction of information and communications systems, difficulties in coordinating physical supply lines and associated damage to the physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), to a lack of logistics management expertise. In practice many aspects of the environment into which aid must be delivered are frequently beyond the control of