Contracting Services for Response to Extreme Weather Events in Public Organizations

ABSTRACT Public organizations facing emergencies often coordinate with other local public and non‐profit organizations for assistance. Yet we know little about the contractual relationships public organizations build with external organizations for emergency responses. Drawing from organizational theories, we explore organizational factors behind public organization decisions to contract for responses to extreme weather events. Using agency‐level data merged from three national sources, we find an inverted U‐shaped relationship between organizational uncertainty about extreme weather events and contracting for immediate emergency responses: contracting is most likely at a moderate level of uncertainty and least likely at a very high level. Greater reliance on contracting for daily services is associated with increased contracting for long‐term emergency planning, while receipt of dedicated financial resources is associated with increased contracting for both immediate emergency responses and long‐term emergency planning. We connect findings with the contracting and emergency management literatures and discuss implications for practice.