Dominant Stakeholder Research Articles

How does the dominant stakeholder strategically manage an innovative public policy? Evidence from the London congestion charge

AbstractPrior studies have examined various economic, environmental, and social impacts of the London congestion charge (LCC). However, few studies have investigatedhowthe Transport for London (TfL) managed the LCC in all stages of its policy. Without active, strategic management of policies, stakeholders affected may doubt the policies’ legitimacy and reduce policy effectiveness. Thus, examining the means utilized to achieve effective policy management is critical and can potentially influence the development and management of future policies. This study adapts Mitchell et al.’s stakeholder typology to studyhowthe TfL, as part of the management of, and as the dominant stakeholder in, environmental regulations in London, strategically managed the LCC via their own efforts to exert power, establish legitimacy, and claim urgency. Relying on Yin, we analyze publicly available data to show how the TfL actively managed the LCC to ensure its sustainability as policy. The TfL primarily used tactics to maintain and enhance the LCC's legitimacy with authoritative power and fears of unproven urgency to influence other stakeholders. Results have practical implications for policymakers contemplating policy reforms and shed additional light on less‐discussed latent factors regarding policy management. This study contributes to the literature by applying stakeholder theory to the domain of policy reform, administration, and management. Our findings have policy implications as policymakers may benefit from learning the tactics examined in this study to assess their policy management and administration. Lastly, through our discussion and conclusions, we reflect on our findings to encourage research on policy management.

Comparative Analysis of Innovation Districts to Set Up Performance Goals for Tec Innovation District

Purpose: Innovation districts represent a way to create, foster, and manage innovation. Different regions apply their strategy according to the dominant stakeholder in the region, such as academia, industry, government, or entrepreneurs. This research aims to evaluate different innovation districts from a production system point of view to determine the output goals for a Tec Innovation District. Methodology/Approach: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was determined to be the best tool for this study; the variable returns to scale output-oriented model was used to determine the goals for the new district; also, the bootstrap method was employed to analyse the efficiency sensitivity in the sample of districts. Findings: The average technical efficiency of the analysed innovation districts was 0.659, with the highest technical efficiency observed in the case of the Entrepreneurial type (0.831) and Industry Cluster (0.820) districts, whereas the Local government type registered the lowest technical efficiency (0.468). Research Limitation/Implication: The projections for the Tec Innovation District’s output variables were obtained using a set of U.S. innovation districts due to the similarity of the studied region to the available group. The research allowed us to determine realistic outputs for the studied innovation district. Originality/Value of paper: The study employs an original DEA for comparing innovation districts and performs a bootstrap to study the system’s robustness; within this research, the performance level of a new district was calculated to be within a specific efficiency level, according to their peers.

‘He Wei Gui’: The wisdom and action of tourism photography vendors to handle conflicts in Canton Tower Scenic Area

Given both the popularity of street vendors and the government resistance to them in tourism governance, we interview vendors between September 2014 and May 2021 to gain insights into the interactions and conflicts between vendors, local enterprises and government departments in Canton, China. We derive a theory of ‘He Wei Gui’ from Chinese Confucian culture and adopt discourse analysis to investigate how informal tourism photography vendors in the Canton Tower Scenic Area resolve their conflicts. We argue that photography vendors have developed a harmonious but fragile coexistence through the use of measures such as fuzzification of public space, flexible industry regulations, output of emotional capital and normalised ways, thereby demonstrating the business acumen of little people. In contrast to the existing trend of ‘rigid governance’, the authors suggest applying ‘flexible management’ in the informal economy and tourism governance, and giving prominence to the principal role of informal operators or little people. In addition, this flexible management reflects the tacit consent from all the stakeholders, the active suing for nonviolent solution from the vulnerable and the willingness of modifying or even creating rules for balancing the distribution of the interests from the dominant stakeholder. The key to this flexible management is that authorities take the investment of emotional capital of the vulnerable groups into consideration. This leads to fuzzy governance which blurs and integrates emotions into the rules, making it possible to solve the conflicts in a more flexible way.

Disaster Mitigation in Coastal Areas: Perspective of the Indonesian Spatial Planning Law

This article is a critical analysis on spatial planning with regard to disaster mitigation in coastal areas. The author explores the concepts and regulations of disaster mitigation and spatial planning in Indonesian coastal areas to identify how spatial planning works in terms of disaster mitigation in coastal areas and the roles of stakeholders in disaster mitigation in coastal areas in the context of the spatial planning law. This normative legal research was conducted by examining secondary data from relevant books, journals, and published documents. This study finds out that, first, according to the Spatial Planning Law, Management of Coastal Zone and Small Islands Law, Disaster Management Law, Job Creation Law, and their derivative regulations, there have been regulations mandating spatial planning as a non-structural mitigative measure with regard to disaster management in coastal areas. Second, in terms of spatial planning and disaster mitigation, the government is the dominant stakeholder, while the role of non-government stakeholders is not expressly provided for which may eventually result in "tokenism" participation in disaster mitigation in coastal areas.

Competing for legitimacy in the place branding process: (re)negotiating the stakes

Although stakeholder participation in place branding is actively encouraged, there has been a paucity of studies examining why uneven involvement persists in practice. This study builds on Bourdieu's theory of field and capital to explain how stakeholders from the local state, destinations, businesses and local communities negotiate influence and legitimacy in the place branding process. A multi-case study of two UK cities was employed involving semi-structured interviews with 60 stakeholders. We identify the specific characteristics of cultural capital in place branding: procedural know-how and place-sensitive knowledge. Our findings show that community representatives can acquire a seat at the place branding table by possessing distinct place-sensitive knowledge and drawing on procedural know-how accrued from professional settings. Nevertheless, traditionally dominant stakeholder groups, such as local state actors, destination management organisations and the business community, can build strategic collaborations that counter deficits in cultural capital and thus retain their status.

Usability of Physical Internet Characteristics for Achieving More Sustainable Urban Freight Logistics: Barriers and Opportunities Revealed by Dominant Stakeholder Perspectives

Urban freight logistics currently have to deal with multiple unsustainable conditions. Physical Internet (PI) characteristics show promise in making urban freight logistics more sustainable. This paper explores the opportunities and barriers to implementing this concept. Q-methodology is a method used to reveal different stakeholder perspectives. The results of the Q-methodology show four different perspectives out of which three display a positive attitude toward PI characteristics. One perspective is more moderate and states that a lot is possible already without any changes. One of the barriers is that there is no urgency to change. Further, most perspectives have a positive attitude toward regulations as long as they are nationally coordinated. Based on these results, policy recommendations are developed for individual and collaborative actions for stakeholders.

STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION: A STUDY ON PERFOMANCE AUDIT CONCEPT AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE

This study aims to examine the concept of performance audit and organizational excellence using a stakeholder perspective. This research was conducted in a service organization by observing and collecting information from informant covering directors, shareholders, and employees. This research is qualitative, using semi-structured interviews with a constructionist approach. Based on the results of the analysis that has been carried out, it is found that there are no significant differences of opinion among stakeholders regarding the concept of performance auditing in the achievement of organizational excellence, and there are differences of opinion regarding the magnitude of the contribution of performance audits given in an effort to achieve organizational excellence, namely 5–10%, 80–90%, and 95–95%. This study uses stakeholder theory to identify stakeholders in the object of research, and the results show that there is a dominant role, namely, the dominant stakeholder which plays the role of customer. In this case, the organization relies on significant stakeholders to achieve organizational excellence.

Reconciling stakeholder demands: a social dominance perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate how a higher status of one stakeholder group relates to the outcomes of stakeholder–organization relationship with other lower status stakeholder groups.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper uses insights from resource dependence theory while applying the tenets of social dominance theory (SDT) to develop a model with testable propositions explaining the variability with regard to stakeholder dominance and the resulting outcome in terms of (un)favorable organizational responsiveness to other stakeholder demands.FindingsFirm’s behavior or decisions regarding a particular stakeholder group may be influenced by dominant hierarchical status of another stakeholder group if the latter considers that their respective interests are misaligned and is not willing to compromise. The argument build in this paper indicates that it is likely that the influence of the dominant stakeholder group will undermine stakeholders from a subordinate group.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to two distinct literature streams. First, this paper extends research on stakeholder responsiveness exploring the triadic relationship, particularly focusing on stakeholders’ perspective that has been given much less attention in prior literature. Second, this paper extends the application of the SDT to a stakeholder relationship context potentially allowing for a more parsimonious theory.

Comparison of benefits, stakeholders, implementation, and locations of community forestry in Taiwan and Indonesia based on experts’ views

ABSTRACT This study compares the benefits, stakeholders, program implementation, and locations of community forestry (CF) programs in Taiwan and Indonesia based on expert views. An online survey was submitted to 49 experts between December 2019 and January 2020. We evaluated CF benefits, stakeholder roles, and available programs in both countries using the Friedman and Hollander–Wolfe tests. Concerning benefits, Taiwan and Indonesia differed considerably, in that environmental, economic, and social benefits of CF in Taiwan were all assigned equal values. However, in Indonesia, economic benefits (R = 55.0) had the highest score. Regarding stakeholders’ contributions, community organizations (R = 99.5) constituted the highest contribution in Taiwan, while the government (R = 79.5) was the dominant stakeholder in Indonesia. The government mostly contributed by providing financial support (R = 67.5) for community organization development in Taiwan, while in Indonesia, it focused on devolving forestland and forest resources (R = 61.0) to communities. The contributions of non-governmental organizations in facilitating CF were the same in Taiwan and Indonesia. In terms of the available programs, Taiwan and Indonesia also differed, indicated by the community participation motives that were equally important to increase income, protect forests, and conserve biodiversity and ecosystem in Taiwan, whereas in Indonesia, increasing income (R = 63.0) was the most important to communities. For community development programs, ecotourism (R = 51.5) is more influential than product industry development in Taiwan, while in Indonesia, they were equally influential. CF implementation in Taiwan was more likely located in mountainous areas, while CFs were situated throughout Indonesia.

Mapping the Key Stakeholders toward Supply Chain Sustainability: Evidence from the Brazilian Beef Supply Chains

This study aims to map the key stakeholders towards Brazilian beef supply chain sustainability based on stakeholder theory. Using the typology proposed by Mitchell and colleagues in 1997, we identified definitive stakeholders (e.g., slaughterhouses), dependent stakeholders (e.g., government agencies), dominant stakeholder (e.g., Greenpeace), discretionary stakeholder (e.g., beef consumer), and nonstakeholder (e.g., media). Beyond providing a mapping of stakeholders and their roles, this study contributes by emphasizing the need to balance firm attention to its stakeholders, who wield varying levels of legitimacy, power, and urgency. We demonstrate the importance of mapping stakeholders as the first step in analyzing supply chain sustainability.

Disaster Risk Management: The Exercise of Power, Legitimacy and Urgency in Stakeholder Role in Ghana

Aim: Disasters continue to wreck both developed and developing countries, causing high mortality and suffering and damage to local economies and also impede development. Ghana is exposed to natural hazards, and the country’s susceptibility to these disasters has increased in both frequency and complexity over the years. This requires an understanding of disaster planning and resource allocation, legitimised in stakeholders who exercise power and urgency to manage and mitigate external uncertainties and internal complexities. The study aimed to examine the exercise of power, legitimacy, and urgency of stakeholders in disaster risk management in the Accra Metropolitan Area.
 Study Design: Qualitative case study design involving respondents purposively selected from Accra Metropolitan Area and local communities was employed. We used in-depth interviews and desk reviews of policy documents to assess stakeholder role in disaster risk management. We analysed the data using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis technique based on three principles of the stakeholder theory; power, legitimacy, and urgency, to advance our discussions on stakeholder role in disaster risk management.
 Results: The findings show that central government exercises high effective power, which serves as a strong basis for policy decisions but low precision and low urgency in responding to disaster risk management. At the local government level, the exercise of power and urgency to act appear ineffective despite a strong policy framework to guide disaster management. In addition, the exercise of power and legitimacy role appears low in the local communities. Conversely, urgency in addressing disaster risk management appears to be high among community members.
 Conclusion: This study contributes to the existing literature by suggesting structural and administrative reforms to stakeholder role in the management of disasters; central government remains a dominant stakeholder; local government agencies restructured to have a definitive role and the communities maintain their demanding role to hold local government agencies accountable. These reforms will establish a sharp, clear roadmap for the future and set into motion scenario planning for unanticipated disasters.

The Viewpoint of Righteousness and Benefit in China’s Diplomacy: Learning from the Traditional and Building the Contemporary

The contemporary viewpoint of righteousness and benefit, proposed by President Xi Jinping of China in 2013, initially originated from the traditional concept during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period over 2000 years ago. On the evolution, traditional views are usually individual- and domestic-level based; feudal kings were assumed the subject (dominant stakeholder) of practice with the people objects (passive takers); the subject and object enjoyed a hierarchical relationship in the domestic society. The contemporary concept focuses fully on the international level, viewing Chinese state as the subject and its neighbors (as well as some developing countries) as objects; they maintain an equal relationship in the international community. The upgraded analysis level and the changed subject and object as well as the altered relationship between them drive China’s diplomacy to practice the contemporary righteousness–benefit viewpoint. Nowadays, the group of subject players expanded to include not only Chinese government but also Chinese enterprises, whose responsibilities still need additional clarification. For China case, the government is assumed to take the major responsibility in practicing righteousness, with enterprises for benefit. Subjects and objects enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with each other; China, as the subject of practicing righteousness, naturally has the expectations to get righteousness in return from the objects. The contemporary viewpoint of righteousness and benefit will work as a practicing guidance to China’s diplomacy, entailing a working mechanism to put it into practice. If implementation of such viewpoint fails to take route, correction mechanism from economic side will be needed as war is not always considered the ideal way.

Ties That Bind: Public Foundations in Dyadic Partnerships

Public Ancillary Funds (PubAFs) are grantmaking philanthropic foundations, largely held to be independent. However, some PubAFs exist in significant and exclusive relationships (dyadic partnerships) with a dominant stakeholder involving shared values, strategy, resources, and goals. This paper examines the benefits and challenges for PubAFs of being in a dyadic partnership and how this relationship affects their identity, accountability, and independence. Interviews with 28 PubAFs reveal significant differences between the operating forms and practices of PubAFs in dyadic partnerships, and those which were not. While dyadic partnerships are most commonly associated with donor organisations that establish and provide ongoing funding to foundations (e.g. corporate foundations), this study’s findings show that to be a limited understanding, with PubAFs existing in dyadic partnerships in a range of different contexts. Further, the closeness and exclusiveness of a dyadic partnership presented both benefits and challenges which PubAFs must actively manage over time.

Improving Prediction Accuracy of Socio-Human Relationships in a Small-Scale Desalination Plant

This study examines who are the social actors in coordinating the environmental hot spots along the process of desalination. The integrated model design of life cycle modeling and Social Network Analysis is evaluated holistically by the inventory of life cycle and actor engagement ratings. Instances of the first small-scale reverse osmosis desalination plant project in Kelantan, Malaysia were used to meet the demands of this study. Environmental performance is measured through the Eco-Indicator 99 method in the Life Cycle Assessment Principles. Meanwhile, the network analysis of the actors’ networks involves stakeholders visualized through the UCINET software. The results show three hotspot points of membrane and brine disposal, the use of electrical energy, and the use of chemicals. The results acknowledged that 87 percent of the actors’ involvement from the dominant stakeholder group has been in control of the management and of the aforementioned hotspot. Undoubtedly, the results of this study can provide a better understanding of the potential market of actors to work with a more accurate and polycentric information flow for the development of more established desalination systems. This intriguing research will require further exploration in future studies.

Characterization of Stakeholders in the Value Chain and Commercialization Channels of String Cheese in Vega de Alatorre, Veracruz, México

Purpose: Characterize Stakeholders in the Value Chain and CommercializationChannels of String Cheese in Vega de Alatorre, Veracruz, México.Methodology: The study was performed in the period June-August 2019, including 61surveys responded by milk producers and 22 dairy product processers (cheesemakers).Local Agri-food Systems (LAFS) and value chain approaches were applied.Results: The value chain of string cheese in this municipality consists of providers ofsupplies, dairy cattle breeders, gatherers, cheesemakers, sellers, and final consumers.String cheese is commercialized through 5 channels: (a) products are distributed bycheesemakers to wholesalers and retailers, (b) products are sold in food stores,establishments or restaurants within the region, (c) products are sold to distributors whobuy the product directly in the factory, d) direct sale in a grocery or traditional dairy storein the municipality and (e) products are sold at small-scale to final consumers in houses.Study Limitations: Distrust of some stakeholders to provide information for the study,due to the insecurity in the state of Veracruz. Conclusion: Limitations were found in the development and integration of the valuechain. The sale of cheese is carried out without sales contracts or cooperationagreements. Prices are set subjectively by the dominant stakeholder, and in order toinfluence the market price, producers and processors arbitrarily make conditional on thesupply or demand for milk and cheese, which creates market failures and inefficiencies.

Too Many Meanings: Contestation of Lawang Sewu as a Heritage Tourism Attraction

Tourism industry utilizes heritage as a tourist attraction. Not only the physical existences, but also the meaning of its heritage, particularly its narrations, are used to gain profit for tourism industry. Lawang Sewu located in Semarang, Indonesia is one heritage which is used by PT KeretaApi Indonesia (PT KAI) as a heritage tourism attraction. This research analyses many meanings or narrations of Lawang Sewu as a heritage tourism attraction. This research has three objectives. First, it aims to identify the meaning of BPCB Central Java, PT KAI, local people, tour guides and tourist interpretations of Lawang Sewu. Second, it aims to discover which stakeholder dominates the narrations presented in Lawang Sewu. Third, it seeks to understand how the dominant stakeholder can govern the narrations. This research is a qualitative research with inductive reasoning. Through the use of interactive analysis model as the data analysis method and hermeneutics approach to draw the conclusion, this research finds that each stakeholder construes the meaning of Lawang Sewu differently. Among the interpretations, PT KAI is the dominant stakeholder found in the presentation of Lawang Sewu to tourists.

Identifying Dominant Stakeholder Perspectives on Sustainability Issues in Reefer Transportation. A Q-Method Study in the Port of Rotterdam

Driven by global climate concerns, seaports have formulated sustainability goals, which also require sustainability gains in the fast growing temperature-controlled logistics market—increasing energy efficiency, reducing waste, and streamlining logistics processes. This, however, requires cooperation and buy-in from a wide range of stakeholders. To explore the barriers and facilitators of such a transition, we map the interests and attitudes of cold chain actors in the Port of Rotterdam regarding sustainability issues in reefer transportation and cold chains. We identify a limited number of broadly shared perspectives using Q-methodology—a survey-based method to study subjective viewpoints (originating from psychology) that has been used only rarely in the freight transport field. The analysis yields four ‘dominant’ perspectives that together account for 46% of the variation among stakeholder viewpoints. We label these perspectives “sustainability as part of strategy”, “short term constraints”, “optimistic about technology, limited role for policy”, and “long run willingness under risk avoidance.” These perspectives are characterized by multiple factors, including the evaluation of organizational capabilities, expectations from policymakers and technology, and the time horizon stakeholder organizations consider regarding sustainability concerns. From the findings, we derive recommendations for managers and policy makers to facilitate stakeholder dialogue and possibly convergence and coalition building.

A discourse network analysis of UK newspaper coverage of the \u201csugar tax\u201d debate before and after the announcement of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy

BackgroundOn 6th April 2018, the UK Government introduced the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) as a mechanism designed to address increasing prevalence of obesity and associated ill health by reducing sugar consumption. Given that the successful introduction of upstream food and nutrition policies is a highly political enterprise involving multiple interested parties, understanding the complex network of stakeholders seeking to influence such policy decisions is imperative.MethodsMedia content analysis was used to build a dataset of relevant newspaper articles, which were analysed to identify stakeholder agreement or disagreement with defined concept statements. We used discourse network analysis to produce visual representations of the network of stakeholders and coalitions evident in the debate as it was presented in UK newspapers, in the lead up to and following the announcement of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in the UK, from May 2015 to November 2016.ResultsCoding identified 3883 statements made by 214 individuals from 176 organisations, relating to 47 concepts. Network visualisations revealed a complex network of stakeholders with clear sceptical and supportive coalitions. Industry stakeholders appeared less united in the network than anticipated, particularly before the SDIL announcement. Some key industry actors appeared in the supportive coalition, possibly due to the use of corporate social responsibility rhetoric. Jamie Oliver appeared as a dominant stakeholder, firmly embedded with public health advocates.ConclusionThis study highlights the complexity of the network of stakeholders involved in the public debate on food policies such as sugar tax and the SDIL. Polarisation of stakeholders arose from differences in ideology, focus on a specific policy and statements about the weight of evidence. Vocal celebrity policy entrepreneurs may be instrumental in gaining public and policy makers’ support for future upstream regulation to promote population health, to facilitate alignment around a clear ideology.

Water–Energy Off-Grid Systems Design Using a Dominant Stakeholder Approach

This work addresses the design and operation of off-grid energy–water systems in low-income communities. A multiobjective nonlinear programming model for defining the size and operational policy fo...

Conditions accommodating a dominant stakeholder in the design of renewable air conditioning systems for tourism complexes

Seawater air conditioning systems use cold water from the deep ocean to provide cooling utilities to buildings. Their design, as with other renewable energy systems, involves the participation of multiple stakeholders with different preferences and objectives. A multi-objective strategy based on compromise solutions for reducing the dissatisfaction between multiple participants is presented. The dominant stakeholder is considered to have predominant participation, opinion, and weight in the final decision of the project. The presented decision-making framework allows for the resolution of conflicts and shows the effects of different criteria on the final configuration of the system. This work presents an optimal design model considering, as a case study, a touristic zone in Mexico. The results show significant differences between scenarios where all the stakeholders are considered under a condition of equality and one in which only the dominant stakeholder is considered. This decision-making approach shows flexibility and provides tolerance limits for compromise solutions that still consider the influence of the dominant stakeholder.