Operational performance and governance of outsourced logistics service providers (LSP) in humanitarian supply chains

Only limited attempts have been made in the financial or outsourcing streams of academic writings to explore or quantitatively model the relationship(s) between operational and financial performance metrics of outsourced service providers. Since humanitarian supply chains (which are formed in response to human or environmental disasters) rely on an outsourcing model it is critical that there is an effective method developed to assess their operational performance and governance. This paper reviews the current literature on performance measurements in outsourcing, with its specific application to humanitarian supply chains, and highlights the paucity of adequate models of performance in the examination of this vital area of research. As a consequence, the paper concludes by outlining the potential areas for future research to start to address this gap.