Strategic Roadmapping Framework for Disaster Response: Case of COVID-19 Pandemic Vaccine Rollout Program in the UK

Abstract

Strategic planning in response to disasters is distinctly different from strategic planning in normal situations. The experience of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shown that a vaccine rollout program as a disaster response requires a different approach from current routine vaccination and disaster response frameworks. A holistic conceptual framework for planning vaccine rollout disaster response programs is proposed, building on the experience of COVID-19. The customizable framework was developed to have high dynamicity, flexibility, and applicability, incorporating key decision-making factors and suitable time frames (phases and transitions), based on roadmapping principles and techniques. In this research, we focus on the COVID-19 pandemic vaccine rollout program in the United Kingdom (UK) as a representative case of disaster response planning due to the availability of public data and access to the relevant stakeholders. We applied Platts’ process approach as a methodology and used various sources of information including an extensive literature review, expert interviews, and retrospective roadmapping (mapping past experience). As a result, we propose a strategic roadmapping framework for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout program to support visual planning of time-based strategies with the integration of various resources and demand environments. Apart from this practical contribution, we demonstrate that the concept of roadmapping can be applied beyond technology and innovation management domains to a novel research domain such as disaster response.