Rethinking Supplier Integration in Humanitarian Supply Chains: Feasibility and Constraints From an International Humanitarian Organization Perspective

ABSTRACT

Despite the widely recognized importance of integrative practices in commercial supply chain operations, their application in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) remains underexplored. HSCs differ from commercial supply chains in their relational dynamics and integration processes, operating under extreme uncertainty, demand volatility, infrastructural disruption, and resource scarcity across a complex web of actors. Using an embedded single‐case design, this study assesses supplier integration (SI) in humanitarian operations in a leading international humanitarian organization (IHO), as well as the IHO's relationships with eight key suppliers. Drawing on the relational lenses of power, trust, and commitment, distinct integration patterns were identified across different supplier types. The findings highlight humanitarian‐specific contextual constraints and are used to inform a typology of SI feasibility encompassing feasible, selectively feasible, and low‐feasibility integration. This typology provides a foundation for guiding supplier relationship management in complex humanitarian contexts. This study offers a framework for understanding how relational and structural conditions shape integration in humanitarian settings and underscores the need for IHOs to adopt context‐appropriate supplier management approaches that reflect the unique dynamics of humanitarian operations.