The Student Volunteer Army: a 'repeat emergent' emergency response organisation

This paper seeks to contribute to understanding of the factors associated with an effective emergent emergency response organisation and to provide new insights into this understudied area. It examines, through an analysis of a range of textual resources, the emergence and re-emergence of the Student Volunteer Army (SVA) during the devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2010-11. This evaluation is conducted in relation to the four key features of an effective emergency response organisation: adaptability; direction; leadership; and communication. In addition, the paper aims to further understanding of emergency entrepreneurship' and thus of the values and strategies that underpin social entrepreneur organisations in times of normalcy. The paper concludes that the unique position of the SVA as a repeat emergent' emergency response organisation enabled it to innovate continually and to improve repeatedly its systems, relationships, and image, such that it exhibited features common to emergent and established emergency response organisations.