Swift Trust in Humanitarian Logistics Operations: an Ongoing Work

Abstract

Trust is essential for any teams working together. In humanitarian logistics operations, relief organizations often have to work collaboratively in emergent response groups or hastily formed networks. Trust in such a context, called "swift trust" in the literature, is an important but less explored topic. This paper attempts to fill the research gap first by developing a testable research framework for empirical investigation. The framework incorporates various factors affecting the forming of swift trust as well as its impact on team coordination and effectiveness. We further conduct an empirical examination among humanitarian players in Southeast Asia to test the research framework. While the empirical analysis is still ongoing, findings so far have already enriched our understanding on swift trust in relief networks, which may in turn improve humanitarian logistics operations in rapid onset disasters.