Guest editorialEmerging technologies in emergency situations

Abstract

1. The role of emerging technologies in emergency situations The world is witnessing an unprecedented upheaval in global operations and supply chains (Azadegan and Dooley, 2021; Scholten et al., 2020). Increasingly occurring natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic have plunged organisations into a state of emergency, with many fighting for their very survival (Ivanov, 2020; Queiroz et al., 2020; Schleper et al., 2021). Be they large or small, short-lived or sustaining for some time, emergency situations present a potential risk to an individual’s health and livelihood, organisational and societal welfare and to thewider environment (van deWalle andTuroff, 2008; Sarkis, 2021). Emergency situations typically require urgent action to restore operations to the previous scenario or new strategies for survivability and adaptation to an entirely new context (Ivanov and Dolgui, 2020b; O’Flynn, 2020). Due to the scale and immediacy of these events, a range of actors is often involved, including governments, non-governmental organisations and businesses that need to work together to mitigate threats to life and property. To find a way out of today’s emergency situations, managers urgently require guidance on how to rapidly redeploy operational resources and build resilience (Ivanov and Dolgui, 2021; Remko, 2020). Emerging technologies such as those related to Industry 4.0 are well-positioned to help organisations rebuild and reconfigure their resilience capabilities (Koh et al., 2019; Spieske and Birkel, 2021). Recent scholarly work on emerging technologies has deepened our understanding of Industry 4.0 in a supply-chain context, including research on blockchain (Wamba and Queiroz, 2020), artificial intelligence (AI) (Dwivedi et al., 2019), big data analytics (Fosso Wamba and Akter, 2019; Kache and Seuring, 2017), the Internet of Things (IoT) (Schroeder et al., 2020) and 3Dprinting (Kapletia et al., 2019; Roscoe et al., 2019). However, one area that has received limited scholarly attention is deploying emerging technologies in emergency situations. Technology has always been and continues to act as an enabler of enhanced performance. Despite the scarcity of research, it is clear that emerging technologies can act as a coordination mechanism and flexible manufacturing tool when responding to emergencies (Queiroz and Fosso Wamba, 2021), supporting localised manufacturing close to the point of need (Srai et al., 2020). Recent advancements in digital technologies can enhance planning, mobilisation and management during emergency situations. For example, AI and business analytics can quickly identify populations in distress (Fosso Wamba et al., 2021). Social media combined with big data analytics can coordinate the relief efforts of local volunteers during disasters (Dubey et al., 2019; Guest editorial