Processing capacity under complexity: an organizational information processing perspective on humanitarian supply chain performance

Purpose This study aims to investigate the role of processing capacity in shaping humanitarian supply chain performance under crisis conditions. Specifically, it examines how information processing capacity influences response performance and equity performance, and how environmental complexity and structural integration moderate these relationships. It also examines whether environmental complexity moderates the information processing capacity-equity performance relationship more strongly than the information processing capacity-response performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT) and a contingency perspective, the research model is proposed and empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 600 professionals with relevant experience working in the humanitarian supply chain across India. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS. Findings The PLS-SEM results show that processing capacity has a significant positive effect on both response performance and equity performance. The environmental complexity amplifies the impact of processing capacity on both outcomes, but results confirm that it has stronger moderating effect for equity performance compared to response performance. Similarly, structural integration also significantly strengthens the relationship positively between processing capacity and both performance dimensions. Research limitations/implications First, this study extends OIPT to humanitarian supply chains by demonstrating that the relationship between information processing capacity and performance depends on environmental complexity. Second, it advances contingency-based reasoning by showing that environmental complexity strengthens the relationship between processing capacity and equity performance more than its relationship with response performance, suggesting that the value of processing capacity varies across humanitarian performance dimensions. Third, it extends OIPT by identifying structural integration, defined as the alignment between emergency and routine supply chain structures, as an organizational condition that strengthens the relationship between processing capacity and both response and equity performance. Practical implications The results and analysis presented in the study suggest that humanitarian organizations need to prioritize coordination among multiple actors, real-time information sharing, decentralized decision-making, and structural integration explained through the mechanisms of emergency and routine supply chain tasks. Originality/value This study contributes to the humanitarian supply chain literature by theorizing and empirically showing that processing capacity matters differently across humanitarian performance dimensions. It demonstrates that environmental complexity strengthens the processing capacity-performance relationship more strongly for equity performance than for response performance. The study also shows that structural integration enables humanitarian organizations to translate processing capacity into improved response and equity outcomes.