Stakeholder identification and prioritization: The attribute of dependency

Abstract

Stakeholder identification literature states that stakeholders with power, legitimacy and urgency over an organization should be prioritized. But, how can stakeholders be identified and prioritized when they lack awareness of organizational strategies? Unawareness, evident in internal issues, results in some stakeholders not having urgent claims and thus not considered priority stakeholders. To fill this gap, we draw on Resource-Dependency theory to introduce the operational attribute of resource-dependency. Our theorization is explored in the context of business succession in family businesses (FB). We examined and compared owners' views, against other stakeholder groups deemed, by them, important for the success of their organization. We used a multiple-case study design to study six Australian food manufacturing FBs. We found that stakeholder identification and prioritization accuracy improve when driven by the nature of the managerial issue (i.e., succession over market expansion) and the analysis of the organization’s levels of dependency on key individual stakeholders.