Creating Shared Value: A Conceptualization and Empirical Investigation of the Dynamic Stakeholder Management Capability

Abstract

This dissertation introduces the construct of dynamic stakeholder management capability (DSMC) by joining the stakeholder management capability defined by Freeman (1984) and the dynamic capabilities approach by Teece et al. (1997). The DSMC enables firms to adapt their stakeholder relationships to external changes over time and to specific local contexts of different countries. Through these adaptations firms are better able to link stakeholder demands to business opportunities and create shared value – value for stakeholders and the firm. The study applies factor analysis for generating and confirming latent constructs and it applies hierarchical regression analysis, floodlight analysis (Spiller et al., 2013), and mediation analysis (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Hayes, 2013) for testing the hypotheses. Analyzing more than 400 German firms with stakeholder relationships in multi-national supply chains the study confirms the positive effect of the DSMC on stakeholder value and firm value. As the first study of its kind, it supports the fundamental, yet not sufficiently verified assumption in stakeholder theory that positive stakeholder relationships relate to stakeholder value creation and, in turn, to firm value creation.