Specific Stakeholder Groups Research Articles

Analisis Pengungkapan Akuntansi Lingkungan Terhadap Pertanggungjawaban Sosial Industri Kimia (Studi kasus Pada Sosial Industri Kimia di Kota Bandar Lampung)

The chemical industry is inseparable from the existing environmental problems and is influenced by several factors. The purpose of this study is to determine whether those factors that exist within the company, which is in the possession of diproksikan management, leverage, the size of the company, affecting the social profitability of a companys disclosure. Disclosure of corporate social pengkomunikasian need to be done as a form of social and environmental impacts of economic activities of the organization with respect to specific stakeholder groups, to the community as a whole. The sample in this research is chemical industry company in Bandar Lampung. In the processing of data of this study, the authors used a CUCKOLD KELLY WELLS with program testing multiple linear regression. From the research we can note that the ownership of the management, the level of leverage, size and profitability of the company, affecting the social accountability.

Making Sense of Environmental Complexity in a Reform Context: The Case of Megaproject Alpha

In this paper, new concepts on environmental complexity and sense making are developed and explored and analysed. The article based on a case study regarding a public-private collaboration in a Dutch infrastructural mega project. It is argued that the ability to influence the direction of the change process of the mega project “Alpha” depends on the way actors are able to influence the so aleed “cultural interfaces” into the power arena by means of a specific group of organizational stakeholders. After a short theoretical introduction, we describe the case in terms of two dominant cultural stages and their specific interface dynamics. The paper concludes with a general reflection on the central concepts.

Research Priorities for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics

To achieve consensus regarding important clinical, translational, and health services research questions for the field of developmental-behavioral pediatrics (DBP). Twenty-seven developmental-behavioral pediatricians, 16 psychologists, and 12 parents participated in a 3-round Delphi survey. Participation was 100% in Rounds I and III and 96% in Round II. In Round I, each participant suggested up to 10 research questions important for DBP in the next 5 years. In Round II, participants rated the importance of each unique question on a 9-point Likert scale. Questions were rated as consensus important questions if they had a median score of 7 and the 25th percentile was at least 6 or the coefficient of variation ≤30 (suggesting consensus). Questions were rated as potentially important if they had a median of 7, but a coefficient of variation >30 or if specific stakeholder group ratings suggested importance. After providing participants the Round II results, potentially important questions were rated a second time (Round III). In Round I, 216 unique research questions were identified. In Round II, 29 of these questions met the criteria for a consensus important question and 60 questions were rated as potentially important. In Round III, 10 additional questions were rated as consensus important questions. Of the 39 consensus important questions, 20 were efficacy or comparative effectiveness studies and 40% related to autism spectrum disorders. This Delphi process identified a set of high priority clinical, translational, and health services research topics for DBP that can guide research to advance the field and improve care and outcomes for children with DBP conditions.

Beyond the final consumer: the effectiveness of a generalist stakeholder strategy

PurposeManagers often face a number of dilemmas with respect to their stakeholders: Who are the most salient ones? How many should they target? How to allocate attention/efforts among them? Based on stakeholders and market orientation research this paper aims to address these dilemmas.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a survey of managers in a cross‐industry sample of 115 firms. The authors first identify a specific group of salient stakeholders – those providing the firm with revenues and financial support. The article then studies the conditions under which firms should adopt a key approach to stakeholders' management – a “generalist” stakeholder strategy, that is, deal with a larger number of revenue and funding producing stakeholder types, and/or more evenly spread attention/efforts among them.FindingsThe findings suggest that a generalist stakeholder strategy has a positive effect on firms' performance among resource‐rich firms and among firms who face dissimilar (“unrelated”) stakeholders. Also, degree of environmental volatility was not found to moderate the relationship between a generalist stakeholder strategy and firms' performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes to the marketing and stakeholder literatures by identifying and studying a group of important stakeholders beyond final consumers – those providing the firm with revenues and financial support, and by studying the conditions under which firms benefit from one key approach to stakeholders – a “generalist” stakeholder strategy. The study's limitations characterize most cross‐sectional survey research (e.g. single informants, subjective performance assessments). However, substantial efforts were made to ensure the validity and robustness of the findings.Practical implicationsThe study offers managers insight into the organizational and environmental conditions under which firms should adopt a generalist stakeholder strategy.Originality/valueThis is one of the few papers that integrate into the marketing literature the study of stakeholders. Specifically, it introduces the concept of a generalist stakeholder strategy.

Stakeholder Orientation and Organisational Performance in an Emerging Market

Previous research into Chinese firms' stakeholder orientation has failed to identify these firms' specific stakeholder groups. Additionally, there is little research in this line that reflects the recent Chinese constitutional transition. This study seeks to fill these gaps. It extends previous studies by identifying Chinese firms' key stakeholder groups, drawing on the descriptive approach of stakeholder theory. Based on the identification, the authors examine how these stakeholder orientations influence organisational performance and how they interact. Interviews with managers from 107 firms show that customer, employee, shareholder, supplier and competitors are perceived as Chinese firms' most important stakeholders; empirical studies using data collected from 307 Chinese firms reveal that orientations towards these stakeholders enhance organisational performance. Moreover, there are synergy effects existing between customer orientation and competitor orientation, while shareholder orientation has significant hindering effects upon competitor orientation as a reflection of recent institutional changes taking place in China.

Understanding Ethics-Quality Linkages In The Private And Public Sectors

Customers ultimately define a product, while quality is best defined from the demand side. Thus, quality may be considered a weighted sum of quality attributes, ai. This summation may be partitioned in various ways. The most plausible partitioning for both private industry and the public sectors involves a natural temporal and practical ordering for the components. Managers must consider the demands of many legitimate internal and external stakeholders, minimally satisfying all and further satisfying the most salient. There are linkages of particular ai to specific stakeholder groups. Technological standards and quality grading inform and regulate production by employees. Although quality maximization is often an excellent strategy, there is no universal, overarching ethical imperative to maximize overall quality. Rather, in the equations for both economic sectors, each component successively presents a distinctive set of demand related ethical issues.

FTSE4Good: exploring its implications for corporate conduct

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to critically evaluate membership of the FTSE4Good “socially responsible investment” indices (membership of which is based on ethical criteria), which were launched in the UK in July 2001 as a means of increased accountability and change.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an interpretive and critical approach when examining the perceptions of company representatives. The empirical findings are based on a small number of interviews and a postal questionnaire. Some descriptive and inferential statistics are used to summarise and help interpret the questionnaire results.FindingsRespondents indicated that inclusion in the indices had a significant effect on their firms' reputation, and on relationships with specific stakeholder groups. All interviewees emphasised that peer group pressure encouraged top management to maintain their membership of the indices. Questionnaire respondents indicated an even balance of views regarding tightening the admission criteria for the indices. The influence of FTSE4Good on corporate conduct was found to be limited and mainly confined to reporting activity, though policy and management systems were amongst other areas where some impacts were noted. A small proportion of respondents felt that membership of the indices had had some significant influences on their companies.Originality/valueThe investigation of the influence of a “mass market” ethical investment index on constituent companies is where the main originality of this paper lies. In particular the interviews with constituent firm representatives and the questionnaire results are novel for ascertaining perceptions about the impact of inclusion in the indices on constituent companies.

State Mental Health Policy: "We Never Used to Do Things This Way": Behavioral Health Care Reform in New Mexico

State Mental Health Policy: "We Never Used to Do Things This Way": Behavioral Health Care Reform in New Mexico

Do Firms Practice What They Preach? The Relationship Between Mission Statements and Stakeholder Management

The accuracy of corporate mission statements has not been well explored. In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between mission statement content and stakeholder management actions. Findings indicate that although social issues such as the environment and diversity are less frequently included, their mention in mission statements is significantly associated with behaviors regarding these issues. The study found no relationship between firms with mission statements that mention specific stakeholder groups (employees, customers, and community) and behaviors regarding these stakeholders. This suggests that the inclusion of specific stakeholder groups in missions is likely the result of institutional pressures, while specifying social issues in missions is related to policy decisions.

Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation, Goals, and Behavior

Corporate social responsibility orientation (CSRO) remains an important topic of researchers. However, one aspect of CSRO that has not been well researched is how it relates to behaviors and goals of managers. In this article, the authors explore that relationship, testing whether emphasis on a particular domain of social responsibility affects time spent dealing with specific stakeholder groups and whether firm size affects that relationship. Results from a survey of small business owners indicate that the emphasis a manager places on a domain does affect behavior and that firm size has little impact on this relationship. Implications of these findings are discussed.

One reputation or many?

PurposeThe firm's reputation is one of its most valued intangible assets. Scientific and managerial interest in corporate reputation grows steadily. Reputation management – one of the cornerstones of corporate communications – seeks to align communication with stakeholder groups as to prevent a fragmented reputation. As yet, little is known about the perception of corporate reputation amongst the different stakeholders of a firm. Comparative empirical evidence has remained scarce. The aim of this paper is therefore to raise fundamental questions about reputation: how it may or may not differ between stakeholder groups and how firms can take these differences into account when measuring and managing corporate reputation.Design/methodology/approachA single‐case, but very substantial, quantitative empirical study among German consumers, employees, and private investors of a consumer goods producer. Methods of data analysis include cluster analysis, ANOVA, and structural equation modelling using partial least squares.FindingsThe data analysis shows that the criteria applied by individuals belonging to different stakeholder groups in assessing corporate reputation are rather similar. Differentiation emerges in relation to actual perceptions of various reputational facets.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for building and interpreting the results of stakeholder‐related measures of corporate reputation and for reputation management.Originality/valueThe paper integrates different stakeholders' perceptions of corporate reputation within one empirical design and delivers insights into the relevance of adapting reputation measures to specific stakeholder groups.

Exploring the Drivers of Corporate Reputation: A Study of Italian Securities Analysts

Corporate reputation can be broadly defined as a set of collectively held beliefs about a company's ability to satisfy the interests of its various stakeholders. In this paper, we report findings from an empirical study of drivers affecting the judgment of a specific group of stakeholders, that is, securities analysts. Results from a survey of 75 analysts operating on the Milan Stock Exchange indicate that securities analysts tend to judge companies mainly on their financial performance, the configuration of their governance structures, the quality of their financial disclosure and the quality of their leadership and of their prospects for the future.

New Dimensions of Corporate Culture: A Construct for Stakeholder Ethics in a Spiritual Workplace

The topics of corporate ethics and workplace spirituality have become increasingly important management issues throughout businesses in the United States during the past several years. This renewed interest in ethics and spirituality can be partially attributed to the many illegal and unethical acts of corporate executives that have cost stakeholders billions of dollars. Our objective is to analyze stakeholder ethical theory and its implications within the culture of a spiritual workplace environment. One original premise is that stakeholder theory focuses on the belief that management decisions must be made in light of their impacts upon all stakeholders that may be impacted by these decisions (Freeman, 1994). These stakeholders include stockholders, employees, customers, managers, suppliers, and local communities (Beauchamp & Bowie, 2004). Within the context of this analysis, the primary focus is on one specific group of stakeholders which is employees. Additionally, employees shall be used in this paper as including managers and all subordinate employees actively involved in employment with the organization. As previously mentioned, in addition to the increased focus on corporate ethics, there is a resurgence of spirituality among the American workforce. This interest in spirituality transcends into every aspect of life including homes, relationships, and businesses. Thus, there is a broader spectrum of factors to be evaluated within the context of stakeholder ethics in a spiritual workplace environment. There has been limited research on the impacts of stakeholder ethical theory and its potential impacts on decision making in a spiritual workplace environment. The primary objective of this paper is to analyze the impacts of a construct of stakeholder ethics within a spiritual workplace environment.

An empirical examination of the stakeholder strategy matrix

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine whether the stakeholder strategy matrix provides useful guidance for managers in dealing with stakeholders. The matrix suggests that strategies for dealing with stakeholders can be determined based on stakeholder ability to cooperate and threaten organisational outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a hypothetical scenario looking at the development of a new environmentally friendly product, where eight stakeholder groups and their influencing abilities are manipulated. Marketers reviewed one version of the scenario and were then asked the applicability of 13 strategies for each stakeholder group described. Mixed design analysis is then undertaken to examine the direct effects and interactions between the four combinations of influencing abilities, the stakeholder group examined or how the strategy suggested impacted on managers' views.FindingsThe research found that there was an interaction effect suggesting that some strategies were more applicable to stakeholders with certain sets of influencing abilities, as the stakeholder strategy matrix suggested. The specific stakeholder group examined also appeared to impact on managers' views, which is inconsistent with the theory.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations are that the research focused on managers' perceptions of the applicability of strategies, rather than the actual success of strategies examined. Research into the effectiveness of actual behaviours would possibly require more in‐depth examination of case studies.Practical implicationsThe research suggests that the stakeholder strategy matrix may provide some guidance as to how managers deal with stakeholders. However, it also suggests that managers may be implicitly applying influencing abilities to groups irrespective of their “true” influencing ability. In this case managers are in fact ignoring valuable information when deciding how to interact with stakeholders and therefore possibly using less effective strategies to interact with stakeholders.Originality/valueThe research is unique as it looks at determining whether different types of strategies for dealing with stakeholders are perceived to be more or less effective. This therefore seeks to make stakeholder theory more strategic and applicable in a broader set of contexts. As such the paper would be of interest to managers seeking to understand better how to deal with stakeholders and to theorists seeking to understand better how stakeholder theory impacts on organisational outcomes.

Post School Psychological Services (PSPS) – present and future

Following a three-year development phase, in which three part-time National Development Officers undertook a feasibility study, piloted services to key stakeholders and made recommendations, since approved at Ministerial level, a new phase of developing services to the post school sector is underway. This involves the creation of 12 Pathfinder Services along with two Strategic Officers; the latter necessitates the setting up of specific stakeholder groups, to monitor and advise on an unfolding strategy. This reduced paper (see full article on PSPS website below) provides background and update on current developments at April 2005.

A Comparison of the Quality of European, Japanese and U.S. Mission Statements:: A Content Analysis

This study assesses the quality of European, Japanese, and U.S. firms’ mission statements by comparing the content of firms’ statements to the recommendations in the academic literature. Three measures of “quality” were employed: (1) identification of specific stakeholder groups; (2) inclusion of specific components (industry, target customer, geographic scope, values, motivational messages, distinctive competence, future orientation, and financial objective); (3) achievement of four objectives: communicates direction, assists in control, guides decision making, and motivates employees. The study found that few firms included all stakeholder groups, most firms included about half of the recommended components, and most statements did not meet all of the recommended objectives. Overall, although regional differences were found, our results suggest that the statements fall short of meeting the quality criteria suggested in the academic literature.

Stakeholders as Citizens? Rethinking Rights, Participation, and Democracy

This paper reviews and analyses the implications of citizenship thinking for building ‘ethical’ institutional arrangements for business. The paper looks at various stakeholder groups whose relation with the company changes quite significantly when one starts to conceptualize it in terms of citizenship. Rather than being simply stakeholders, we could see those groups either as citizens, or as other constituencies participating in the administration of citizenship for others, or in societal governance more broadly. This raises crucial questions about accountability and democracy in stakeholder relations with the corporation. We sketch out the main currents informing and emerging from the citizenship perspective on firm-stakeholder relations; analyze specific stakeholder groups and their particular relevance in the context of a citizenship perspective; and conclude with a discussion of the broader implications in terms of building ethical institutions.

Measuring the impact of user participation in agricultural and natural resource management research

Persistent poverty and environmental degradation demand a constant effort to improve the effectiveness and impact of agricultural and natural resource management research. Participatory research methods have developed as a way to help researchers better target their work towards the needs and constraints of specific stakeholder groups. Participatory research may also strengthen the capacity of participants to initiate a continuous process of innovation. The capacity of farmers and other end users of technologies to innovate may be particularly important in poor, marginal environments where conditions are highly variable. This paper assesses the impact of using participatory methods in three agricultural research projects which have a natural resource management focus. Mixed methods are used to assess technological, economic, human, and social impacts and the cost implications of incorporating beneficiaries into the research process. User participation was found to influence priorities and practices within and beyond the specific projects studied. Participation led to more relevant technologies and greater economic impacts, especially when participation was early in the research process. Impacts on farmer capacity were high when farmers worked intensively with researchers over a period of time. Use of participatory methods changes research costs. When farmers took over tasks that were previously done by researchers, some of the research costs were transferred to farmers. When participatory methods were combined with conventional on-farm research, there were also start-up costs, because researchers and farmers needed to learn new research methods. However these additional one-time costs were not significant in terms of total research costs.

How Tight Are the Ties that Bind Stakeholder Groups?

The purpose of stakeholder management is to facilitate our understanding of increasingly unpredictable external environments, thereby facilitating our ability to manage within these environments. We argue that a powerful implicit assumption within the stakeholder literature—that priorities within role-based stakeholder groups are relatively homogeneous—blurs our understanding of organization-stakeholder relationships. Two important and related areas of concern are presented. The first involves the primacy of role in stakeholder definition. This role primacy approach to stakeholder definition is appropriate if, for a particular issue, role-based stakeholder group members have similar priorities. Individual and collective self-interest provides a rationale for this assumption. However, an important problem with this approach arises in situations in which self-interest is not the primary motivator of individuals' priorities. In these instances, subgroups within different role-based stakeholder groups might have more similar priorities than either subgroup has with others within their role-based stakeholder group. In these situations the role primacy approach impedes, rather than facilitates, an understanding of our environment. Our second concern is related to insufficient rigor in the application of stakeholder analysis. Most stakeholder studies, both theoretical and empirical, fall short in the determination of relevant interests and the subsequent subdivision of role-based stakeholder groups into rigorously defined specific stakeholder groups. Having suggested that the role primacy approach to stakeholder definition is less than ideal, we examine the extent to which, and the conditions under which, roles are likely to determine priorities, and thus, the likelihood of relatively homogeneous priorities within role-based stakeholder groups. In addition, we present an illustrative empirical analysis of stakeholder group priorities. The illustrative study is conducted within the context of intercollegiate athletics. Related literature and our empirical results indicate that role-based self-interest frequently is not a sufficient "binding tie" of stakeholder groups. Given this background, we present an alternative approach to stakeholder analysis that borrows heavily from the customer segmentation literature of marketing. Our alternative approach can accommodate heterogeneous priorities within role-based stakeholder groups.

Corporate legitimacy and environmental reporting: identifying the audiences and choosing disclosure approaches (work in progress)

It is generally agreed that private corporations have duties and responsibilities greater then merely maximising profits for shareholders. These take the form of increased social responsibilities and this idea has its origins in the notion of a social contract between the corporation and society. Over the last two decades, the impacts that corporate activities have had on the natural environment has emerged as one of the most important social issues for corporations to manage. Legitimacy theory posits that the greater the likelihood of adverse shifts in the social perceptions of how a company is acting, the greater the desirability on the part of the company to attempt to manage these shifts in social perceptions: to remain legitimate. Managing legitimacy may take many forms, from the corporation changing its activities so that it is consistent with society's values, through to attempts to influence processes that may cause a change in social perceptions. Whatever form legitimacy management takes, to be successful the message must be communicated to society. Research suggests that the main way this communication takes place is through the disclosure of environmental information in the corporate annual report. What is not clear from the research to date, is whether corporations target these disclosures at specific audiences, those deemed more important to a corporation's continuing legitimacy, and if so, are there specific purposes for these disclosures. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current literature in order to explore the idea that corporations target legitimation tactics at specific stakeholder groups (referred to as conferring publics) and that corporations use environmental disclosures in the annual report to depict, or positively influence, a perception of congruence with the views of who it determines are its conferring publics.