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Information Diffusion among Agents: Implications for Humanitarian Operations
Author(s) -
Altay Nezih,
Pal Raktim
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
production and operations management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.279
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1937-5956
pISSN - 1059-1478
DOI - 10.1111/poms.12102
Subject(s) - information exchange , computer science , information flow , information sharing , information quality , cluster (spacecraft) , humanitarian aid , quality (philosophy) , resource (disambiguation) , business , information system , knowledge management , risk analysis (engineering) , operations research , economics , world wide web , political science , telecommunications , computer network , philosophy , linguistics , engineering , epistemology , programming language , economic growth , law
The basis for this article is an information‐processing view of the UN 's cluster approach. We use agent‐based modeling and simulations to show that clusters, if properly utilized, encourage better information flow and thus facilitate effective response to disasters. The article intends to turn the attention of the humanitarian community to the importance of sharing information and the role of cluster leads in facilitating humanitarian aid. Our results indicate that if cluster leads act as information hubs, information reaches its target faster, enabling a prompt humanitarian response. In addition, we show that information quality is critical for effective resource utilization—if cluster leads filter information, it moves faster. We also found evidence that the willingness to exchange information plays a larger role in transmitting information than that of an information hub, particularly during later stages of response operations.