Stakeholder Literature Research Articles

The effect of corporate social responsibility hybridity on firm performance: moderating role of aspirational talk

PurposeThis study explores a novel conception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) hybridity and investigates its effect on returns following CSR announcements and the moderating role of aspirational CSR talk.Design/methodology/approachBased on an event study of 136 Chinese companies’ CSR announcements, this study empirically insights into an overall tension between the short-term firm performance (FP) loss and medium-term FP success of CSR hybridity.FindingsFirst, CSR hybridity has a negative impact on short-term FP. Second, although there is positive effect on medium-term FP, this influence is not permanent. Third, aspirational CSR talk has a moderating role on the positive relationship between CSR hybridity and FP. These results point to the unique features of hybridity that require time to diffuse the impacts.Originality/valueFirst, by adopting new concept of CSR hybridity, this study contributes to the literature by considering better solutions to integrate strategic CSR. Second, by investigating the complexity of the CSR hybridity–FP dialogue, the results provide insights into the questions of why and when organizations could be incentivized to adopt hybrid CSR approaches. Third, this study contributes to the CSR–FP and stakeholder literature by demonstrating that aspirational talk is key in CSR’s medium-term success. The implication of this is a growing pressure on companies’ CSR communications with investors through managerial talk that depicts organizational ambitions for CSR engagement.

VALUE DISTRIBUTION TO STAKEHOLDERS: A STUDY ON POWER AND STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE ON THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE

VALUE DISTRIBUTION TO STAKEHOLDERS: A STUDY ON POWER AND STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE ON THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE

Who’s in and who’s out? Reading stakeholders and priority issues from sustainability reports in Turkey

This research aims to discover trends regarding stakeholders in sustainability reports. It questions the patterns or trends in addressing stakeholders, based on the assumption that the more a stakeholder is mentioned, the more importance is attached to it. Quantitative content analysis was conducted on a dataset of 179 sustainability reports published between 2004 and 2019 by 26 companies traded in Borsa Istanbul. All stakeholders disclosed in the sustainability reports were coded to create lists and groups, and the changes in stakeholder lists over time were presented. The research identified 102 stakeholders classified into 16 groups. The categorization is a crucial step in the stakeholder identification process as it reveals the hierarchy between stakeholders. By applying a time-series analysis, it was found that companies increasingly valued their employees, making occupational health and safety, diversity and equal opportunity, and talent management as top strategic issues in the Turkish context. This study makes a unique contribution to both the existing stakeholder literature and sustainability reporting within the Turkish context. It offers a pioneering longitudinal analysis of long-term stakeholder representation for listed companies in Turkey, breaking new ground in this area of research.

Understanding stakeholder experience through the stakeholder journey

In this article we consider stakeholder experience through the stakeholder's contact journey with a project. Drawing on the customer experience literature we consider the stakeholders experience by using customer experience as a metaphor. Stakeholder experience will involve cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social responses at touchpoints through the project. Key elements of customer experience are relationships, trust and value creation and we consider what those mean for stakeholder experience. We then identify that project stakeholders go through a four-stage experiential journey: pre-project; tendering; project delivery; and post project. These experiences shape around three types of touchpoints: project organization owned; stakeholder owned; and social/external context. We also consider five value creation elements and the cognitive and emotional responses at touchpoints. In the process we review what the project stakeholder literature has said about these issues. While few authors have addressed them directly, many relevant observations have been made. Establishing over these pieces is one stepping stone to develop future research for nourishing our understandings from stakeholder experience.

The Effect of Acquisitions on Environmental Performance: Evaluating the Role of Primary Stakeholders

This study examines how acquisitions influence corporate environmental performance by integrating theoretical notions from organizational learning and stakeholder literature. We posit that firms can improve environmental performance following acquisitions by learning from their targets. However, this depends on the environmental knowledge and capabilities of the target relative to those of the acquiring firm. We further suggest that change in environmental performance following acquisitions does not only depend on the target firms, but also on the acquirers’ primary stakeholder groups. We test our hypotheses by analyzing longitudinal data on 380 acquisitions of public, US-based acquirers. We find that acquirers with a strong orientation towards customers, employees and suppliers are more likely to learn from their acquisition targets. Furthermore, we show that the reaction of shareholders to acquisition announcements also determines the extent to which firms improve environmental performance following acquisitions. Our results underline the importance of primary stakeholders in achieving environmental performance improvements following strategic actions. With this research, we contribute to literature on M&As by going beyond the implications of acquisitions on financial firm value. We further contribute to stakeholder literature by providing insights on the role of primary stakeholders for organizational learning.

Stakeholder Engagement in Sport Policy Decision Making in Taiwan during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper focuses on the salience, engagement and influence of selected stakeholders in two key sport policy initiatives in Taiwan during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper identifies three principal dimensions in the stakeholder literature which relate to, the uses of stakeholder theory; sources of nature and level of stakeholder influence; and perspectives on the nature of stakeholder decision-making; and it seeks to evaluate the contribution of these three principal dimensions of stakeholder theory to the explanation of stakeholder resources, interests, and behaviour in the policy/management scenarios identified. In terms of methodology the study is founded on the ontological and epistemological assumptions of critical realism. In terms of method, the analysis of stakeholder interests, activities and impacts is undertaken through a thematic analysis of documents, and interviews with leading figures in government and sport in Taiwan (n = 11), in relation to the two policy initiatives highlighted. The paper explores the outcomes of stakeholder interaction in the two scenarios, and evaluates the contribution to our understanding of these outcomes, providing a useful test of the extent to which the cases in the two scenarios respectively depart from, or conform to, the outcomes anticipated in the ideal typical accounts of stakeholder interaction.

The dilemma of downstream market stakeholder involvement in NPD: Untangling the effects of involvement and capabilities on performance

In many industries, new product development (NPD) success depends on whether products simultaneously provide value to multiple stakeholders on the demand-side of the firm like buyers, users, payers and regulators. Building on the open innovation and stakeholder literatures, we explore the dilemma of downstream market stakeholder involvement: it can help firms to create value for the market and increase their NPD financial performance but it can also negatively affect NPD efficiency. In addition, we test whether three dimensions of stakeholder involvement capabilities (identification, interaction and integration), allow firms to benefit from stakeholder involvement without impairing efficiency. The results of a survey in the medical device industry show that stakeholder involvement breadth has a positive effect on NPD financial performance and that stakeholder involvement intensity leads to less efficient NPD processes. Finally, we find that interaction and integration capabilities contribute to NPD efficiency, while identification capability is detrimental.

Stakeholder Distrust - A Construct in Need for Better Understanding

Stakeholder literature has only recently turned to analyzing troublesome relationships. Here we argue that this analysis can be enriched by introducing a concept that has been more prominently explored in organization studies: distrust as a distinct concept. We introduce distrust by also differentiating it from related constructs such as suspicion, negative reciprocity and conflicts. We then develop a stakeholder distrust model, whereby we differentiate the most proximate antecedents of stakeholder distrust and how such distrust manifests in distrust-induced behaviors. Following this we explore distrust dynamics, that is, how distrust between stakeholders and the focal organization emerges and develops, spreads across levels and possibly transgresses from suspicion to distrust (or from trust to distrust). Finally, we offer first insights for further research on how stakeholder distrust as a distinct concept can enrich stakeholder analysis, lead to a new perspective on stakeholder engagement practices and enable a profound discussion of stakeholder relationship dynamics.

CEO Regulatory Focus and Workplace Safety: Evidence from Plant-Level Analysis

We integrate upper echelons theory with regulatory focus theory and expand the research to examine the relationship of chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) promotion and prevention focus and workplace injuries. We develop argument that the desire for advancement and growth associated with CEOs of a high promotion focus leads to more workplace injuries while a pursuit for stability and security associated with CEOs of a high prevention focus leads to fewer workplace injuries. Based on the regulatory fit framework, we further identify the a contingent framework that identifies CEO- (i.e., incentives of current and prospective wealth associated with stock options), firm- (i.e., performance aspiration), and external capital market-level (i.e., analysts downgrades) factors which provide the boundary conditions of the effects of CEO promotion and regulatory focus on workplace injuries. Based on a sample of S&P500 firms and their plant-level injury data during the period of 2005-2011, we find general support for these hypotheses. The results highlight the important role of CEO regulatory focus and illustrate its unforeseen consequences beyond firm strategies to affect other stakeholders’ interests (i.e., employees). We discuss our contribution to strategic leadership literature as well as stakeholder literature.

Addressing a Homeless Services Workforce Deficit Through Collaborative Social Work Field Placements

ABSTRACT As homelessness continues to pose a significant social problem in many urban areas, service agencies rely on social workers to fulfill a critical role. However, recruitment and retention of social workers for high-demand fields, such as homeless services, is challenging. This study offers a formative analysis of a master’s of social work field education program that brings multiple universities and service agencies together, with the Corporation for Supportive Housing in Los Angeles serving as lead convener. The preliminary efficacy of the collaborative field placement model is examined through a program stakeholder analysis and extensive literature review. Findings inform program enhancements and revisions. Evidence-based recommendations for communities interested in improving social worker recruitment and retention through a collaborative field placement program are offered.

The Social Nature of Stakeholder Utility

For positive or negative, one stakeholder’s utility derives in part from her/his perceptions of how other stakeholders are being treated by the business. Yet, to date, the stakeholder literature ha...

From closed to open: A comparative stakeholder approach for developing open innovation activities in SMEs

Recent literature on open innovation (OI) highlights the need for studies regarding the factors that influence firms to switch from a closed to an OI strategy. At the same time, stakeholder literature points out the scarcity of knowledge regarding antecedent factors fostering collaboration with the firm's stakeholders and their engagement for higher value creation. To fill these gaps, we propose an analytical framework for implementing a strategic OI process through the development of stakeholder engagement. Our framework comprises 17 factors grouped in five levers: knowledge, collaboration, organizational, strategic, and financial. We empirically applied this framework to two industrial SMEs. A qualitative study was conducted based on semi-structured interviews with internal and external stakeholders of both firms. The results show that one company successfully implemented the OI process, while the other struggled to evolve from a traditionally closed innovation model to a more open model. Analyzing the results, we identified several aspects that could explain this difference. These aspects concern the OI activities performed by both firms, the combination of the five levers into a coherent OI approach, stakeholder engagement, and the characteristics of the CEOs. The current study contributes insights for theory and practice, especially as it proposes an original framework for developing a strategic OI process that integrates a stakeholder approach.

Vertical stakeholder collaborations for firm innovativeness in new product development: The moderating roles of legal bonds and operational linkages

Drawing on stakeholder and organizational learning theories, this study investigates when and how diverse types of formal mechanisms with varying levels of adaptation and integration properties for bonding stakeholders, including legal bonds and operational linkages, affect a firm's vertical stakeholder collaborations in new product development (NPD). It also explores how vertical stakeholder collaborations in NPD affect a firm's innovativeness and its eventual performance outcomes under technological turbulence. The study contributes to the stakeholder literature by focusing on diverse types of formal mechanisms rather than a single type of formal mechanism for bonding stakeholders. Survey data of 146 firms in Turkey evidence that while legal bonds decrease the likelihood of establishing vertical stakeholder collaborations during technological turbulence, such collaborations enhance firm innovativeness for focal firms holding operational linkages. Moreover, vertical stakeholder collaborations improve firm innovativeness under technological turbulence and enhance firm performance through new product performance.

Evolutionary stakeholder theory and public utility regulation

AbstractPublic utility regulation is one example of how stakeholder theory has actually evolved in practice. Through trial and error, court cases, statutory law and economic realities, stakeholder theory has its origins almost a century before R Edward Freeman published his seminal workStrategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. This wealth of historical data is largely overlooked by the stakeholder literature. We will show in this article how the specific history of public utility regulation provides at least one answer to how stakeholder theory can be formulated, used, and applied. Thisprocessof determining and protecting stakeholder interests is significantly different from rationalist trends in stakeholder theory.1Rather than first trying to determine the requirements of stakeholder theory in conjunction with an ideal ethical theory, the account given here is of anevolutionary stakeholder theorywhere rules arise out of the ongoing search for cooperative solutions among all stakeholders.

Emerging economy sourcing: Implications of supplier social practices for firm performance

As firms search the world for suppliers that provide the best combination of cost, quality and latest technology, they have been confronted with the challenges of managing the sustainability performance of their global supply chains. Specifically, companies have come under increased scrutiny from various stakeholder groups for the labour and human rights practices of suppliers located in emerging economies. Drawing on the sustainability, supplier relationship management, and stakeholder literature, this research examines the relationship between emerging economy sourcing, the use of purchasing teams, and the impact on enforcement of supplier social practices, and firm financial performance. Using data from a survey and archival sources from a sample of large U.S. firms, findings confirm the mediated role of the use of purchasing teams resulting in better enforcement of supplier social practices and improved firm performance. Findings also provide important implications for supply chain and purchasing executives. While the results of this research demonstrate the performance benefits of sourcing from emerging economies, findings also suggest that organizations should make investments to support capabilities related to enforcement of supplier social practices. Opportunities for future research are also identified.

The dynamics of institutional pressures and stakeholder behavior in national electronic health record implementations: A tale of two countries

Through electronic health record implementation, national healthcare systems are aiming for care integration and enhancement. However, the path to large-scale electronic health record implementation is seldom smooth, involving multiple stakeholders with diverse interests and influences. This study proposes a framework that draws on both stakeholder and institutional theories to understand the complex dynamics of stakeholder interactions and institutional pressures over time during electronic health record systems implementation. This framework is utilized to analyze the national electronic health record programs of Singapore and England, which provide contrasting perspectives on how two top-down system implementations took place with different outcomes. Our results suggest that in the Singapore case, the presence of boundary spanners, supporting implementation agency that included IT staff from healthcare organizations, and greater engagement with medical professionals were associated with more positive dynamics of stakeholder interactions (e.g. limited pushback from professionals or the press) during electronic health record implementation than in England. Differences in the healthcare structures and systems, electronic health record project organization, and the combined influences of institutional pressures shed light on the varying implementation paths and outcomes in the two cases. This study adds to the health information technology literature through a comparative examination of the organizational and social processes during complex national healthcare integration projects. It also contributes to the institutional and stakeholder literatures in several ways, in particular by depicting the processes and outcomes of the dynamics of isomorphic pressures played out under different institutional conditions. Finally, our proposed framework provides a useful conceptual tool for analyzing such complex IT implementations across multiple stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement in a non-profit organisation: an issue-based perspective

The aim of this study is to gain insight into stakeholder engagement in a non-profit network organisation; it contributes to the literature on collaborative and cooperative understanding of stakeholder engagement by presenting an issue-based perspective of a non-profit organisation. The research is conducted as a qualitative case study, and multiple data sources are used to examine stakeholder engagement in the case organisation from two perspectives: 1) stakeholders and stakeholder relationships; 2) the issues and their salience as advocated by the stakeholders. It concludes that non-profit network organisations depend on their stakeholders for various resources. Because the continuation of a non-profit organisation is fully dependent on the support of its stakeholders, it can be viewed as an ultimate stakeholder organisation; here, joint activities create value for all parties involved, and the organisation practically exists through its stakeholders. These conclusions contribute to the stakeholder literature by extending the models to include non-profit organisations.

Stakeholder engagement in a non-profit organisation: an issue-based perspective

The aim of this study is to gain insight into stakeholder engagement in a non-profit network organisation; it contributes to the literature on collaborative and cooperative understanding of stakeholder engagement by presenting an issue-based perspective of a non-profit organisation. The research is conducted as a qualitative case study, and multiple data sources are used to examine stakeholder engagement in the case organisation from two perspectives: 1) stakeholders and stakeholder relationships; 2) the issues and their salience as advocated by the stakeholders. It concludes that non-profit network organisations depend on their stakeholders for various resources. Because the continuation of a non-profit organisation is fully dependent on the support of its stakeholders, it can be viewed as an ultimate stakeholder organisation; here, joint activities create value for all parties involved, and the organisation practically exists through its stakeholders. These conclusions contribute to the stakeholder literature by extending the models to include non-profit organisations.

Being too good for your own good: A stakeholder perspective on the differential effect of firm‐employee relationships on innovation search

Research Summary:A firm's stakeholder orientation toward its employees is argued to be beneficial for firm outcomes. However, this orientation may also have disparate impacts on particular behaviors and outcomes, such as local versus distant search, which impose contradictory firm requirements. We find that while a strong firm–employee relationship leads to increasingly higher levels of local search (exploitation), it also leads to increasingly lower levels of distant search (exploration). In additional supplementary analyses, we find similar disparate effects on the productivity of innovation and its market value, as well as a moderating effect of the firm's relationship with other stakeholders which exacerbates both the positive and negative impacts of firm–employee relationships. We discuss the implications of these findings for both the innovation and the instrumental stakeholder literatures.Managerial Summary:Motivating employees toward generating new ideas and innovations is an important challenge for most firms. Establishing the firm as a trustful and good partner for employees may engender in them the commitment and willingness to invest in such activities. However, questions remain as to how “well” the firm should “treat” its employees, and the potential adverse consequences from over‐investing in such relationships. This paper examines these important practical questions and finds that establishing strong relationships with employees can be simultaneously beneficial and harmful for the firm depending on the type of new ideas it seeks. We find that such strong relationships helps with motivating employees to build on and perfect existing knowledge, but is harmful with respect to bringing in new and unfamiliar knowledge.

Stakeholders and Multiple Objectives: The Case of Global Value Chains

It has been argued in the stakeholder literature that rational decision making is implausible without using a single corporate objective function as a guide (e.g., shareholder wealth maximization, stakeholder happiness enhancement, etc.), principally due to the difficulty of measurement (incommensurability), variety in values (stakeholder pluralism), and longitudinal (temporality) challenges under indeterminism (e.g. informational uncertainty). Yet decision making within the very large clusters of stakeholders that comprise Global Value Chains (GVCs: groups of vertically related but independent firms that each have their own objectives organized to convert raw materials into finished products and services) continues to function despite these supposed impediments. To address this challenge, we develop a generalized multi-criteria decision-making pluralistic model by extending the Mitchell, Weaver, Agle, Bailey, and Carlson (2016) stakeholder agency decision framework. We demonstrate theoretically how Pareto improvements in social welfare are more likely through a multi-criteria decision-making “intracorporate marketplace” model that enables more direct participant engagement and goal negotiation among diverse stakeholders.