Humanitarian inter-organisational collaboration network: Investigating the impact of network structure and information and communication technology on organisation performance

In this paper, we report on a study that empirically investigates the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) resources and network structure on performance in humanitarian organisations that respond to natural disasters. We combine two theoretical lenses, resource-based view (RBV) and social network, to analyse data collected through multiple sources including web search, surveys and semi-structured interviews among members of the GlobalSympoNet, a community of interest of organisations engaged in humanitarian information management and exchange. Our findings suggest that organisations that possess a greater variety of ICT and greater network centrality experience superior levels organisational performance. Higher levels of network density also enhance the organisational performance of these organisations.