Co-opetition in the disaster recovery phase: The Christchurch rebuild case study

Abstract

Coordinating actors has been a significant research focus in disaster relief and emergency management disciplines. Most of this literature focuses on the response phase, while the longer-term recovery phase is less studied. During long-term recovery, the types of actors change from disaster relief not-for-profits to commercial entities, thus creating tensions between humanitarian and commercial values. This paper presents a model for the rebuild phase that encourages the simultaneous interplay of collaboration and competition, otherwise known as co-opetition. Following the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2010/11, the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) was created to coordinate rebuilding. Hence, this case study demonstrates a model deployed by SCIRT to incentivise co-opetition by blending humanitarian and commercial values.