Abstract
Stakeholder dialogue is considered a key component of companies’ corporate social responsibility strategy with the aim to discover stakeholders’ demands, expectations, and their view of the firms. Based on the stakeholder theory, this paper aims to deepen the knowledge about stakeholder dialogue by analyzing how firms conduct the dialogue with five key stakeholder groups (i.e., employees, customers, suppliers, investors and shareholders, and the community). Using a sample of 35 leading Spanish companies and, after the collection and processing of the information available in their corporate websites and reports, we have determined the channels that are used, the pursued objectives, and the main commitments achieved. The results indicate that firms are engaged in several forms of dialogue with stakeholders and use various channels which differ depending on the targeted stakeholder group. We gain insight into the initiatives with which companies engage with stakeholders, the underlying interactions, and how each stakeholder group views and assesses the firm. Practical implications for policy makers and managers, as well as future lines of research are proposed.
Highlights
Stakeholder theory posits that a company’s survival and long-term success requires the support of all its stakeholders [1]
This paper aims to deepen the knowledge about stakeholder dialogue by analyzing how a sample of leading Spanish firms conduct dialogue with stakeholders as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy
Davenport [50], we identified the main stakeholders with whom the sample companies interact: employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and the community. For each of these five stakeholder groups, a comparative analysis will be carried out regarding the channels used to establish stakeholder dialogue, the main objectives that govern the relationship between the sample companies and each stakeholder group and short-term business commitments
Summary
Stakeholder theory posits that a company’s survival and long-term success requires the support of all its stakeholders [1] According to this theory, firms must integrate stakeholder expectations into their corporate strategies, which, in turn, leads to understanding their demands and being able to adapt to them [2]. Firms must integrate stakeholder expectations into their corporate strategies, which, in turn, leads to understanding their demands and being able to adapt to them [2] This supposes establishing a bidirectional communication with stakeholders in order to identify their expectations and needs and disclose information that allows stakeholders to assess the extent to which the company is responding to their demands. Stakeholder dialogue supposes an information exchange in a fluid way through which firms can find out what issues are important for their stakeholders and integrate them into their strategies [6]
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