Application Of Stakeholder Theory Research Articles

A stakeholder theory approach on environmental management for small Greek ports. A case study of the three small ports of Volos, Kavala and Lagos

This article seeks to review the research that was carried out in the framework of the SuPorts project regarding the application of stakeholder theory on environmental management for three Greek ports. Specifically, the article seeks to explore the need for stakeholder engagement at ports and presents interview data from the ports of Volos, Kavala and Lagos. The interviews aimed at presenting: 1) the ports' level of engagement with their stakeholders regarding environmental issues; 2) what the main barriers for better environmental performance were; 3) how ports perceived stakeholder influence. The latter was assessed through graphs that present stakeholder influence on a series of environmental issues that the ports face. Finally, the article proposes a stakeholder engagement plan for the ports and presents an overview of a roundtable meeting with stakeholders that was held at the Port of Lagos.

An Innovative Approach to Stakeholder Theory: application in spanish transnational corporations

Objective – This paper describes a different perspective on the application of stakeholder theory, concentrating only on the interests of stakeholders rather than on their roles. The purpose of this article is to provide an option for solving Jensen’s “problem of governance”; this approach will allow the agent to manage the stakeholders having ascertained that the needs of stakeholders overlap and, accordingly, the agent should be able to monitor multiple stakes as they are aligned. Design/methodology/approach – A Delphi method was used with the aim to achieve consensus about the interests of stakeholders for companies in Spain. The confirmatory phase was based on interviews to test whether the interests identified in the preliminary study match the interests that the IBEX-35 firms recognized in relation with their stakeholders. Findings – The main contributions are: the addition of a new interestbased perspective to the different classifications made by stakeholder theory; a solution to the diversity of indicators between stakeholders and shareholders; and, finally, a proposal for an integrated accounting system, incorporating economic as well as social issues employing a common metric (monetary). Practical implications – A new perspective focusing on stakeholder interests and the confirmation that interests may converge permits the control and management of multiple principals in transnational corporations operating in different countries. Originality/value – There is a gap in the applicability of stakeholder management that the interest-based perspective can help resolve; moreover the monetization of social value is an option to efficiently manage transnational corporations.

Imagining Organizational Communication as Sustainable Citizenship

Organizational communication scholarship has made significant strides in theorizing ethical (e.g., Seeger & Kuhn, 2011), socially responsible (e.g., May, Cheney, & Roper, 2007; Morsing & Schultz, 2006), environmentally sound (e.g., Cox, 2013), gender-sensitive (e.g., Ashcraft & Mumby, 2004; Buzzanell & Liu, 2005), race-sensitive (e.g., Ashcraft & Allen, 2003; Parker & Grimes, 2009), work–life balanced (Kirby & Buzzanell, 2014), and alternative (e.g., Broadfoot & Munshi, 2007; Dutta & Pal, 2010) ways of organizing and communicating. These strides notwithstanding, there has been very little research on what might constitute sustainable organizing and communicating in a rapidly changing and increasingly contentious world. In this essay, we build on a framework of “sustainable citizenship” (Kurian, Munshi, & Bartlett, 2014) to imagine an architecture of sustainable organizing and communicating that takes a fresh look at the idea of stakeholder engagement. The application of stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984) largely revolves around organizations strategically managing relationships with distinct and discrete publics with mutually exclusive agendas, interests, voices, and rationalities. However, in such formulations, business and corporate goals and values remain the drivers of engagement (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, Parmar, & De Colle, 2010) as is evident in the spawning projects on business ethics and corporate social responsibility, for example. As Whitman (2008) points out, this influence of business management theory on stakeholder discourse has led to an idea of “corporate citizenship,” which aims at

Stand-alone Sustainability Reporting and the Use of GRI in Italian Vodafone: A Longitudinal Analysis

This study examines sustainability reporting in a case study organisation in Italy. It uses content analysis to examine the use of the Global Reporting Initiative categories, including those of the telecommunication sector supplement in Italian Vodafone. It also considers the application of stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory in sustainability reporting studies. Taking a longitudinal perspective, the study finds there is a pattern in Vodafone's increasing and improving information disclosed in the report and that this improvement in disclosing sustainability information can be explained by the company‘s need for legitimacy.

Applying Stakeholder Theory in Sustainability Management

This essay examines links, similarities, and dissimilarities between stakeholder theory and sustainability management. Based on the analysis a conceptual framework is developed to increase the applicability and the application of stakeholder theory in sustainability management. Concluding from the analysis, we identify three challenges of managing stakeholder relationships for sustainability: strengthening the particular sustainability interests of stakeholders, creating mutual sustainability interests based on these particular interest, and empowering stakeholders to act as intermediaries for nature and sustainable development. To address these challenges three interrelated mechanisms are suggested: education, regulation, and sustainability-based value creation for stakeholders.

Determinants of Social Disclosure Quality in Taiwan: An Application of Stakeholder Theory

This study adopts a stakeholder theory framework to examine determinants of social reporting quality and empirically test the ability of the theory to explain disclosure quality in an emerging economy. Using a sample of 246 listed companies and a hand-collected dataset that included 2 years of data based on survey questions reflecting international disclosure trends, we apply an aggregate measure of quality with five facets to a variety of corporate social responsibility areas. The results support the application and demonstrate that measures of stakeholder power, strategic posture, economic resources, firm size, and media visibility are related to social disclosure quality. This paper adds to the scarce evidence on social reporting in Taiwan and provides a useful method for evaluating disclosure quality. It also illustrates the impact of two dominant foreign stakeholder groups on social disclosures in Taiwan: (1) organizational buyers in the global supply chain and (2) listing and social rating agencies in international capital markets.

Understanding egovernment and egovernance: stakeholders, partnerships and CSR

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assist in understanding that eGovernment is more than the implementation of IT. There are changes to the fundamental mechanisms of public governance including roles of citizens, organisations and government. This study explores the views, roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in promoting eGovernance, with a focus on countries that are in the early stages of developing their ICT strategies.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study approach is used based on the Malaysian experience. A combination of interviews and comments from questionnaires are used to examine government and citizens' viewpoints concerning eGovernment development.FindingsWhile these are preliminary, the qualitative findings are intended for reflection, as well as, suggestions for action. They include: creating eCitizen partnerships; narrowing the digital divide; finding consensus on structures and roles in an eGovernment strategy. The discussion calls for collective stakeholder involvement of government and citizens as partners in order to promote social inclusion.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is exploratory and the findings cannot be considered as representative. However, they indicate areas for improvement. A second more robust empirical study is envisaged with more emphasis on application of stakeholder theory and techniques.Originality/valueThe debate is about collective social responsibility, arguing for social inclusion through the development of eGovernance for the national good which promotes concepts such as eDemocracy and eCommunity through stakeholder participation and partnership.

Applying stakeholder theory to analyze corporate environmental performance

PurposeStakeholder theory has been used extensively as it offers a way to address the changing demands in a dynamic business environment. This study aims to use stakeholder theory to analyze corporate environmental behavior by Australian listed companies.Design/methodology/approachBy adopting Ullmann's three‐dimensional framework comprising stakeholder power, strategic posture, and economic performance, an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model is developed. Three measures of stakeholder power are used: shareholder power (SP), creditor power, and government power (GP). Strategic posture is represented by the level of management's environmental concern (EC) and economic performance is proxied by the firm's return on assets (ROA). Using the 2002 Australian Conservation Foundation environmental performance ranking, the OLS model tests for any significant relationships between corporate environmental performance and the three components of the framework.FindingsThe findings suggest that the level of ownership dispersion (SP), the industry sensitivity characterized by the increased governmental sanctions (GP) as well as the management's concern for the environment (EC) are the significant factors influencing the decision to incorporate superior environmental activities in corporate strategic plans. Measures of economic performance (ROA) show no significant relation with the firms' environmental performance. Likewise, suggestions that size and age of the firms could act as intervening variables are not supported by the results.Originality/valueThe empirical results provide evidence that the application of stakeholder theory can contribute towards one's understanding of how corporate entities behave, particularly in adapting to the rapidly changing business environment where environmental issues are becoming increasingly important.

International franchising decision-making: An application of stakeholder theory

Stakeholder theory is used to provide a frame of reference to examine the decision-making process involved in international franchising agreements. An international hotel group was selected as a case. Previous studies focus on investigations of the franchising process after the decision to engage has been taken and contracts duly exchanged. The analysis presented here focuses on the pre-contracting level: on selection and recruitment. The findings emphasise the importance of managing business cultural incompatibility between potential partners and the franchisor and within the franchising company itself.

Application of Stakeholder Theory to the Quantity and Quality of Australian Voluntary Corporate Environmental Disclosures

This study provides a comprehensive, integrated theory for explaining social responsibility disclosures. The relevant theory applied is Ullmann's (1985) three dimensional model of social responsibility disclosure. The research question asked is: Can Ullmann's stakeholder theory be operationalized to help explain the quantity and quality of environmental disclosures in annual reports in a voluntary reporting setting? Quantity is measured by the number of sentences devoted to environmental issues reported in the annual report while quality of disclosures is measured by a index scored by users of financial statements with financial reporting qualifications. Both quantity of disclosure and quality of disclosure are highly correlated. The sample consists of 102 of the largest companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Ordinary least squares regression is used to determine if variables selected to measure stakeholder power, strategic posture and economic performance are significant in explaining the quantity and quality of environment disclosures in annuals reports. The stakeholder power dimension of Ullmann's framework measured by shareholder, regulator and lobby groups is significant in explaining environmental disclosures. The strategic posture dimension of Ullmann's model measured by content of the mission statement and existence or otherwise of environmental or social responsibility committees also find strong statistically significant support in the results. The third dimension of economic performance is not supported by the results. Consistent with prior studies, size is found to be a significant predictor of disclosure practices.

Ethical Audit Decisions: A Structuration Perspective

The public accounting profession has long relied on its reputation for integrity and veracity as justification for its professional status and monopoly privilege predicated on claims of acting in the public interest. If such status and privilege are to be justified and sustained, serious consideration of what constitutes ethical behavior, how such behavior is motivated as well as an explicit recognition of the rights and interests of affected parties constitutes an ethical imperative for the profession. Traditionally, work on ethics and auditing is quite narrow, failing to recognize the social context of individual actions, failing to identify the relevant constituencies of the profession, and failing to articulate processes through which the constituencies interests can be identified. Generally, the accounting literature has taken a cognitive perspective on ethical decision making which views the resolution of ethical dilemmas as primarily a function of the moral makeup of the actor responding within the context of the Code of Professional Conduct. The purpose of this paper is to broaden the theoretical base of ethical research, specifically within the area of professional accounting and more generally in the area of business. We propose the application of structuration theory in conjunction with stakeholder theory and a responsibility ethic. The application of stakeholder theory is a means for identifying affected constituencies. A responsibility ethic recognizes the situatedness of an individual within an ongoing professional community. Structuration theory provides a theoretical framework for articulating and investigating both the structures within which action is carried out as well as the interaction between the social structures and the actors. Taken together, the theories allow for an enhanced ability to define ethical behavior within a business context and to understand the contextual antecedents and consequences of ethical acts.

The Confines of Stakeholder Management: Evidence from the Dutch Manufacturing Sector

Stakeholder theory is a pertinent example of a framework that has been stretched over many conceptual contexts and that has been applied to a wide variety of empirical phenomena. A pressing issue involves the scope of application of stakeholder theory, however, because it is not a comprehensive ethical scheme or problem-solving algorithm. We begin our search for the boundaries of stakeholder management by identifying a presently under-acknowledged yet major underlying assumption, notably that the approach is rooted in voluntary action and association. Building on this presumption, we argue that firm – stakeholder relationships are best to be understood in contractualist terms; i.e. as voluntary arrangements between two or more parties seeking mutual benefit. This assertion subsequently allows us to identify three boundary conditions applying to stakeholder theory: (1) the parties should be sufficiently autonomous; (2) their interests need to be alignable; and (3) they should be capableof living up to their commitments. We substantiate these criteria with evidence from a collective case study of buyer – supplier relationships in the Dutch manufacturing sector, demonstrating that the stakeholder management model fails when these boundary criteria are violated.

Operationalizing Maslow: Religion and Flow as Business Partners

Maslow and Csikszentmihalyi interpret human experience through a broad application of stakeholder theory to provide an expanded framework for ethical business. The aggressive search for mutuality of interest can reconcile conflicting stakeholder needs. Maslow's religious peak experiences work in tandem with Csikszentmihalyi's psychological optimal experiences (flow) to support the proposition that transcendence is an achievable goal, both for individuals and for corporations.

A Stakeholder Perspective for Analyzing Marketing Relationships

This paper proposes a framework that enables the application of stakeholder theory to the analysis of marketing relationships. By distinguishing between different types of stakeholder relationships, stretching from the positive to the negative side of relationships (i.e. the ladder of stakeholder loyalty), and describing the various relational factors (i.e. relationship orientation, trust, communication, learning, power, reciprocity and commitment) that shape a specific relationship, the proposed framework enables marketers to analyze their firm's diverse relationships. The paper provides a meaningful starting point for developing strategies to change the type of relationship with a specific stakeholder.

Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure: An application of stakeholder theory

A lack of sufficient theoretical support for models designed to explain corporate social responsibility activity led Ullmann ( Academy of Management Review, 1985, pp. 540–577) to develop a framework for predicting corporate social activity based on a stakeholder theory of strategic management. This study empirically tests the ability of stakeholder theory to explain one specific corporate social responsibility activity — social responsibility disclosure. Results support this application, finding that measures of stakeholder power, strategic posture, and economic performance are significantly related to levels of corporate social disclosure.