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Top1. Introduction
Elderly services have become a focus of social concern in the context of a severe global aging problem and falling birth rate. The aging of the population in China is worse than that in other countries. One of the key reasons is the one-child policy implemented in 1980, which has greatly reduced China's overall fertility rate and changed Chinese people's concept of fertility. The challenges faced by China in social security and care for the elderly provide opportunities for the elderly care industry and other related industries (He & Wang, 2019). The elderly care service industry, driven by the growth in demand, is an emerging industry, which has formed a healthy supply chain integrating services, care products and equipment, information technology, financing, care system integration, and other resources for the elderly. Community-based, institutional, and home-based elderly care services are the three most important elderly care service models in China. However, all are inseparable from the cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain. From the perspective of the supply chain, the elderly care service industry should pay attention to the construction of upstream and downstream partner networks and should focus on the partnership and network of all stakeholders (Supromin & Choonhakhlai, 2019). At present, the elderly care service market has formed a service chain with a clear structure and an explicit subject. The elderly services market and industrial supply chain in China are in the initial stage: the market has not yet formed a scale, the utilization rate of resources is low, and resources are unstable. The elderly, the object of elderly care services, are characterized by many sudden diseases and diverse needs for their care (Menghi et al., 2019). The diversity and personalization of health care services for the elderly are of paramount importance. The requirements for elderly care service products are more complex than other types of services and products, leading to higher demand fluctuations (Zhao, 2020). The shortage of raw materials in the upstream and downstream supply chain, sudden changes in service demand, quality problems, and mismatches in demand may all cause supply chain risks and affect the stability of the supply chain (Raghunath & Devi, 2018; Sharma et al., 2017). Public safety and health incidents, unexpected social security incidents, and natural disasters will also cause increased fluctuations in the supply chain. Society has realized the importance of emergency management after the COVID-19 outbreak. Once an emergency occurs, it causes great personal injury to the receivers of elderly care services. As social public safety and hidden dangers receive increasing attention, emergency management has become a point of discussion for society and scholars alike. Research showed that 71.3% of respondents have low response capability when emergencies occur in elderly care institutions (Kim & Bae, 2020). The analysis of and research on the emergency capability of elderly care services is beneficial to discover its weaknesses and implement targeted measures for prevention. Therefore, emergency management in the elderly services supply chain should be a concern for all sectors of society in both macro and micro views. The current research on emergency management for the elderly mainly focuses on emergency medical treatment (Kim & Bae, 2020; Lee et al., 2017; Platts-Mills et al., 2010). Relevant research identifying and understanding the emergency response capability of the elderly care services industry from the perspective of the supply chain is still lacking. The present research intends to build an indicator system for the emergency response capabilities of those in the elderly care services supply chain, which can make up for the lack of research in this area. In a practical sense, this research can provide a theoretical reference and basis for elderly care service integrators (SIs) and participating companies to improve their supply chain capabilities and ensure the stability of the elderly care services supply chain.