Stockpiling supplies for disaster response: an experimental analysis of prepositioning biases

Several relief organisations preposition supplies in preparation for disaster response. We show how the structure of prepositioning decisions resemble newsvendor decisions and how common newsvendor biases could affect prepositioning performance. To explore prepositioning biases, we run a behavioural...

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Autores:
Tipo de recurso:
Fecha de publicación:
2018
Institución:
Universidad del Rosario
Repositorio:
Repositorio EdocUR - U. Rosario
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:repository.urosario.edu.co:10336/22882
Acceso en línea:
https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1542173
https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/22882
Palabra clave:
Criticality (nuclear fission)
Behavioural operations
Biases
Humanitarian operations
Newsvendor models
Pre-positioning
Emergency services
Behavioural operations
Biases
Humanitarian operations
Newsvendor model
Prepositioning
Rights
License
Abierto (Texto Completo)
Description
Summary:Several relief organisations preposition supplies in preparation for disaster response. We show how the structure of prepositioning decisions resemble newsvendor decisions and how common newsvendor biases could affect prepositioning performance. To explore prepositioning biases, we run a behavioural experiment of a prepositioning problem with 20 practitioners from the humanitarian sector. Their task was to choose prepositioning quantities under different cost conditions and for supplies with different degrees of criticality. Results show that participants pull orders away from optimum (pull-to-centre) and follow the prior beneficiary demand realisation (demand chasing) regardless of cost and criticality conditions. However, the estimation of behavioural models reveals patterns hidden in averages, showing that participants weigh undersupply costs more for urgent supplies and urgency moderates demand chasing. A follow-up validation experiment manipulates the salience of urgent supplies by bundling them with non-urgent supplies in a portfolio. Results show that the portfolio strengthens these patterns, increasing the availability of urgent supplies. We offer practice implications of these findings for prepositioning activities and theory implications for inventory experiments in general. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group.