Bridging ‘Stakeholder Value Creation’ and ‘Urban Sustainability’: The need for better integrating the Environmental Dimension

Abstract

Stakeholder-orientation is critical to fostering sustainable urban development through synergic collaborations among urban stakeholders. However, although Stakeholder Value Creation (SVC) has been widely explored in sustainable organizations, little attention has been given to SVC in Urban Sustainability. Thus, this research explored the conceptual connections between SVC and Urban Sustainability using a new methodological protocol based on a Sequential Mixed Method Research design. The main findings revealed that the social, economic, and institutional dimensions of Urban Sustainability are fully integrated into the SVC framework; however, better integration of the Environmental Dimension is needed. Therefore, this dyadic phenomenon can currently be classified as unsustainable or weak sustainability. Additionally, the critical characteristics of SVC with Urban Sustainability are: stakeholder engagement; stakeholder cooperation; ethics of capitalism; satisfaction of stakeholders' needs by self-organization and learning capacities, diversity, trust, common meaning, and consensus; sustainable economic development; innovation ecosystems; sharing economy; circular economy; technical resources; social capital; smart sustainable cities; and energy efficiency. Finally, we proposed a framework for Sustainable SVC in Cities, in which SVC is a means for achieving Urban Sustainability and better integrating the environmental dimension. Environmental issues, environmental management, social entrepreneurship, non-human stakeholders, and stakeholder proximity are promising perspectives in the framework.