Knowledge sharing in relief supply chains

Relief Supply Chain Management (SCM) is rapidly gaining interest in academia at the same time as the number of actors in humanitarian aid and the number of natural disasters are increasing. In order to bring relief to beneficiaries, cooperation between relief supply chains as well as within supply chains is needed. However, at the same time as cooperating, many of the actors in the supply chains compete for the same financial resources (donations). Therefore, cooperation as well as competition, i.e., coopetition, are evident features in relief supply chains, which impact on the incentive to share knowledge among actors. This paper therefore aims at increasing the understanding of knowledge sharing in and between relief supply chains. The importance of Communities of Practice (CoPs) is highlighted in this context, shedding light on the way knowledge sharing is taking place across relief supply chains. After discussing existing CoPs, suggestions are made for how these can be used to enhance knowledge sharing. The paper concludes with avenues for further research. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.