Stakeholder Collaboration: Implications for Stakeholder Theory and Practice

Abstract

relationships within these social partnerships. Social part? nerships are collectivities of organizations that come together to solve "messy problems" that cannot typically be solved by an organization acting alone. Such partner? ships represent "social problem-solving mechanisms among organizations from more than one economic sector" (Waddock 1989, p. 79). As an illustrative example, con? sider how the advent of "green" and environmentally friendly products involves the collaboration of organiza? tions across public and private sectors to develop new technologies for the benefit of society. These organizations include investors, suppliers, legislators, government agen? cies, environmentalists, retailers, the media, special interest groups, and local, state, and federal governments, among others (see Mendelson and Polonsky 1995; Polonsky 1995; Stafford and Hartman 1996). Similar examples include the development of biotechnology products, satellite cable TV, and the introduction of the electric car (see Cooper 2000). In other words, multi-sector collaborations present far reaching implications throughout industry supply chains. New technologies and/or whole industries emerge and firms in the commercial sector create new products for new markets. Interorganizational collaboration has been extolled as desirable and even necessary for achieving competitive advance among business organizations (Powell et al. 1996; Stuart 2000). Collaboration among firms enables them to pool resources, capitalize on complementary capabilities, achieve economies of scale, and enhance innovativeness. Additionally, networks with high closure (Burt 2004; Coleman 1988) because of their extensive interconnections facilitate the exchange of information and the development of common norms among partners, which has a long-term, positive effect on performance (Soda et al. 2004). Similar advantages of interorganizational collaboration accrue to partners in not-for-profit and cross-sectoral partnerships (Gray 1989; Huxham 1996; Huxham and Vangen 2005; Provan and Milward 1995; Shortell et al. 2002). Three general factors motivate organizations to seek cross sectoral partners (Gray 1989; Huxham 1996). First, col? laboration allows an organization to achieve something that could not be accomplished in any other way. Second, collaboration helps organizations tackle social or macro environmental problems, which cannot be solved by any single organization acting alone, i.e., the essential reason for social partnerships. Third, organizations may gain an adaptive advantage through collaboration. That is, organi? zations may engage in collaboration as an adaptive G. T. Savage (E) Management, Information Systems, and Quantitative Methods Department, University of Alabama at Birmingham, BEC 319F, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294-4460, USA e-mail: gsavage@uab.edu