NGO-Business collaboration in Humanitarian Innovation: An Integrative Literature Review

Humanitarian innovation is argued to be a promising way to support humanitarian action (Bessant, Ramalingam, Marshall, et al., 2014; Bessant et al., 2015; Betts & Bloom, 2014; Bloom & Betts, 2013; Obrecht et al., 2017; Obrecht & Warner, 2016). The aim of this study is to provide a review and discussion of the existing literature concerning business-NGO collaboration in relation to Humanitarian Innovation. Further, the study aims at identifying the NGOs unique position for providing and sharing knowledge with businesses to develop innovative solutions in the frame of Humanitarian Innovation. The research question this paper seeks to answer is as follows: “How can NGOs use their position and knowledge from emerging markets to develop Humanitarian Innovation in collaboration with private businesses?” To answer this research question, the paper review literature describing humanitarian innovation and discusses how the NGO can take a stronger position in developing humanitarian innovation. We find that there is a changing focus toward the role of the NGO. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical data describing the processes and interactions among NGOs and businesses leading to trustful collaborations developing humanitarian innovation with the NGO as the driver.