Gunesse, Saileshsingh, Subramanian, Nachiappan, Roscoe, Samuel and Ramanathan, Jothi Basu (2018) The social preferences of local citizens and spontaneous volunteerism during disaster relief operations. International Journal of Production Research, 56 (21). pp. 6793-6808. ISSN 0020-7543

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Abstract

Existing studies on disaster relief operations (DRO) pay limited attention to acts of spontaneous volunteerism by local citizens in the aftermath of disasters. The purpose of this paper is to explore how social preferences motivate citizens to help during post-disaster situations; above and beyond their own self-regarding interests. The paper begins by synthesizing the literature on social preferences from the field of behavioral economics and social psychology with the discourse surrounding behavioral operations management and humanitarian operations management (HOM). By doing so, we identify the motivators, enablers and barriers of local citizen response during disaster relief operations. These factors inform a theoretical framework of the social preferences motivating spontaneous volunteerism in post-disaster situations. We evidence facets of the framework using archival and unstructured data retrieved from Twitter feeds generated by local citizens during the floods that hit Chennai, India in 2015. Our model highlights the importance of individual level action during disaster relief operations and the enabling role of social media as a coordination mechanism for such efforts.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Social preferences, spontaneous volunteerism, disaster relief operations, social media, behavioral operations management
Schools and Departments:	School of Business, Management and Economics > Business and Management
Research Centres and Groups:	Pharma Supply Chains and Healthcare Technology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV0551.2 Emergency management > HV0553 Relief in case of disasters T Technology > TS Manufactures > TS0155 Production management. Operations management
Depositing User:	Samuel Roscoe
Date Deposited:	29 Nov 2017 09:13
Last Modified:	11 Jan 2019 14:40
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/71640

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