Integrating Multiple Stakeholder Issues in New Product Development: An Exploration

Addressing the interests of a wide set of stakeholders is important because it may have positive effects on financial performance. At the same time, however, it is also very complex because managers may face conflicting stakeholder issues, much more so than organizations that listen to only one stakeholder. Little is known about how multiple stakeholder issues are dealt with in the context of new product development (NPD). The objective of this study is to delineate the elements of stakeholder integration in the context of NPD. A combination of insights from stakeholder theory and market information processing serves as a theoretical perspective to guide the empirical exploration in this study. The authors take the development of green (ecological) products as an empirical context for their qualitative multiple case study. Specifically, they selected four case studies with different expected levels of stakeholder integration, based on literature about green NPD. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews with key informants, collecting documents, and obtaining artifacts. In total, 28 informants from various domains were interviewed. Transcribed interviews were coded using qualitative analysis software. The results show that a distinction needs to be made between market and nonmarket stakeholders, and that not all organizations are equally capable of identifying issues that are important to both categories of stakeholders. Organizations that identify issues that are relevant to both market stakeholders and nonmarket stakeholders are more likely to face tensions between stakeholder issues in NPD. Organizations manage these tensions using several, sometimes redundant, coordination mechanisms and using multiple prioritization principles in conjunction. Based on the results, the authors conceptualize stakeholder integration capability in an NPD context as the combination of stakeholder issue identification techniques, coordination mechanisms, and prioritization principles. They propose that stakeholder integration capability is the result of a learning process. Moreover, they propose that proactivity of environmental management and environmental impact of the industry help to explain why stakeholder issue identification techniques are developed, and that the identification of more stakeholder issues leads organizations to develop coordination mechanisms and prioritization principles. Finally, the authors propose that stakeholder integration capability leads to competitive advantage through organizational identification by stakeholders. The study implies that integrating multiple stakeholder issues is not just a matter of feeding additional information into NPD processes, but of changing the nature of these NPD processes.     

Implementation of green innovations – The impact of stakeholders and their network relations

Green innovation is becoming increasingly important for companies and whole societies, and the research in this field has essentially increased in recent years. As green innovation is expected to ensure both environmental sustainability and economical profitability, it might seriously affect the partly colliding interests of various groups of stakeholders. However, from previous studies less is known about the impact that various groups of stakeholders and particularly the relationships among these stakeholders exert on the implementation of green innovations. To address this gap we first substantiate the relevance of the stakeholder theory for innovation studies in general and green innovations in particular. Furthermore, we argue that from the innovator's perspective green innovations are likely to be affected by the interactions with as well as between many primary and secondary stakeholders. To explore this issue in-depth we conducted a case study of the implementation of an offshore wind farm in Germany. Our research revealed that network ties among stakeholders can be both conducive and detrimental to the green innovation. The insights gained in our study contribute to the stakeholder analysis for the implementation of green innovations.     

Stakeholder analysis for R&D project management

R&D projects affect the interests of different stakeholders in different ways. Understanding the stakeholders and analysing their interests helps in the better management of R&D projects. In this paper we discuss a methodology to systematically analyse the stakeholders of R&D projects. This methodology includes Freeman's (1984) three levels of analysis: rational, process and transactional. Based on these three levels, the stakeholder management capability of an R&D project is determined. The final stage is based on Mitchell et al . (1997) approach to analysing the dynamics of stakeholders. This methodology is illustrated using a New Zealand case relating to a road pricing R&D project.     

The darker side of sustainability: Tensions from sustainable business practices in business networks

While the current literature generally assumes that implementing sustainable business practices (SBPs) will lead to improved wellbeing and positive outcomes, relatively little research has explored the potential tensions and conflicts that SBPs may cause in multi-actor networks. To address this issue, we conduct a qualitative multiple case study in a regional business network, including interviews with 43 managers in 17 firms in different industries. The findings of this study identify four types of tensions (economic, structural, psychological, and behavioral) that tend to emerge when firms implement SBPs in networks, and illustrate how different stakeholders (implementers, suppliers, customers, other network partners) perceive them. Overall, this study contributes to the current literature by highlighting the underexplored “dark side” of sustainability, and illuminating how organizational decisions aiming at improving collective wellbeing can also lead to tensions and conflicts. For managers, this study offers insights into how to anticipate, manage and mitigate potential tensions that might arise in business networks when one stakeholder decides to implement a SBP.     

Microfoundations for stakeholder theory: Managing stakeholders with heterogeneous motives

Instrumental stakeholder theory proposes a positive relationship between fairness toward stakeholders and firm performance. Yet, some firms are successful with an arms‐length approach to stakeholder management, based on bargaining power rather than fairness. We address this puzzle by relaxing the assumption that all stakeholders care about fairness. Empirical evidence from behavioral economics and social psychology suggests that firms face a population of potential stakeholders that consists not only of so‐called ‘reciprocators,’ who do care about fairness, but also of self‐regarding stakeholders, who do not. We propose that a fairness approach is more effective in attracting, retaining, and motivating reciprocal stakeholders to create value, while an arms‐length approach is more effective in motivating self‐regarding stakeholders and in attracting and retaining self‐regarding stakeholders with high bargaining power. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The shaping of inventory systems in health services: A stakeholder analysis

Although many studies have addressed the diagnosing and redesign of inventory systems in an industrial setting, the field of operations management seems to lack a thorough understanding of the process of shaping inventory systems in a health care setting. In this article, a contribution is made to fill this gap by exploring the process of reshaping a hospital inventory system of medicines by means of an exploratory case study. In doing so, we concentrate on the question how the outcomes of this process are affected by the different stakeholders involved. Our case study indicates that decisions made during this reshaping process are heavily influenced by the dynamics of the relationships and interactions between the stakeholders involved in the project. Based on our case study there are also some strong indications especially in a health care setting, the existence of multiple stakeholders having a multi-goal focus regarding the inventory system can have a strong influence on the outcomes of inventory projects. For project managers it is important to be aware of these characteristics and circumstances in order to help health service organisations to develop and use inventory systems more effectively.     

Stakeholder theory and practice in Europe and North America: The key to success lies in a marketing approach

Corporate reputation in Europe and North America is increasingly seen as a function of how firms treat their stakeholders. In the United States, stakeholder theory has been touted as a paradigm of good management; yet despite enlightened stakeholder practice at home, US firms continue to run into problems in Europe. Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and GE have, in one way or another, all been caught off guard when doing business in Europe. This paper suggests that some of the stakeholder relations difficulties encountered by US corporations in Europe can be explained by fundamental cultural and philosophical differences between these regions that affect how stakeholders are viewed and how relations with those groups are managed. In this paper, we examine the historical and socio-political forces influencing stakeholder theory in the US and northern Europe and then use a business-to-business marketing approach to show how US firms might develop an approach to stakeholder relations that fits the northern European environment.     

Stakeholder Orientation and Acquisition Performance

Research summary : In this article, we study how a firm's stakeholder orientation affects the performance of its corporate acquisitions. We depart from prior literature and suggest that orientations toward employees, customers, suppliers, and local communities will affect long‐term acquisition performance both directly and through its interactions with process characteristics, such as preacquisition relatedness and postacquisition integration. Analyses of data on a sample of 1884 acquisitions show overall a positive association between acquirers' stakeholder orientation and acquisition performance. In addition, we find support for a positive moderation of business relatedness on the performance impacts of stakeholder orientation. Structural integration has a similarly positive moderation effect only for some of the stakeholder categories. Managerial summary : Does collaboration with stakeholders during an acquisition pay off in terms of performance? The results of this research show that it is worth engaging stakeholders during the M&A process, but that the efficacy of involvement practices may depend on the type of stakeholders and the characteristics of the acquisition. While acquiring firms that take account of suppliers and local communities consistently overperform in their acquisitions, the inclusion of employees might be not beneficial (and even harmful) when the target firm operates in a dissimilar business or when managers do not plan to maintain it as a separate entity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

论企业社会责任的本质——兼与李伟先生商榷其他利益相关者在企业治理结构中的地位

基于利益相关者理论,企业的各个相关者都向企业投入了一定专用性资源,各相关者应按投入资源的比例共享企业的收益,并共同享有企业的治理权。企业社会责任的本质就是企业的各个利益相关者之间的利益分配关系和与之相联系的企业治理权配置关系。企业承担社会责任实际上就是在各利益相关者之间恰当分配企业的治理权,进而确保企业建立合适的社会责任体系来对各相关者承担相应的责任和义务,并且向各相关者履行这些责任和义务的代价占整个企业收益分配的比例,应与各相关者向企业投入的专用性资源的价值比例基本一致。只有企业的各个利益相关者分享了合适的企业治理权,才能确保企业对其履行相应的社会责任。     

Stakeholder management in complex product systems: Practices and rationales for engagement and disengagement

Collaboration with stakeholders has become a cornerstone of contemporary business; however, absolute collaboration is not trouble-free. The present study explores how and why firms engage and disengage external stakeholders in their value-creating activities in complex product systems over time. From the existing research on stakeholder management, we know that actor roles, strategies, reasons and challenges of engaging external stakeholders in innovation and business activities vary across contexts. However, additional research is needed to construct a more comprehensive understanding of the practices as well as their rationales by which firms engage or disengage external stakeholders in complex product systems. Our empirical study of a European district development megaproject improves the current understanding of stakeholder management in complex product systems contexts. We derive nine practices and four rationales that timely describe the engagement and disengagement of external stakeholders. The study develops a processual model of stakeholder management in complex product systems with implications for both stakeholder management literature and managerial practice.     

Strategies for Integrating Stakeholders into Sustainability Innovation: A Configurational Perspective

Sustainability is a key driver of innovation for products, services, and business models. Sustainability innovations are aimed at improving the environmental, social, and economic performance of the innovated solution. Given the complexity of many sustainability challenges, leading innovators may seek to boost their innovation capacity by tapping into the ideas, knowledge, and expertise of their stakeholders. In doing so they need to consider how many and which stakeholders to integrate into new product development (NPD) processes, and at what stage. This study investigates stakeholder integration strategies associated with high sustainability performance of innovation. Building on the literatures of sustainability innovation and stakeholder integration in the context of NPD, this study developed a configurational model to analyze stakeholder integration strategies. The empirical data consisted of 80 interviews and documents from 13 medium to large companies and their stakeholders in Europe. Using the fsQCA method, it was found that there is not just one effective strategy but three stakeholder integration strategies for high sustainability performance of innovation. The results imply that deep organizational engagement with stakeholders is necessary for the achievement of high performance. Otherwise, the three strategies range from progressive openness, which allows stakeholders to exert a fundamental influence on the sustainability innovation, to limited openness toward stakeholder integration. With the early secondary strategy pointing to progressive openness, companies integrate secondary stakeholders early on and so maximize the influence of different views on the innovation. As to limited openness, companies following the selective strategy limit the number of stakeholder groups in NPD but are indifferent to the timing of these groups’ inputs. Finally, the fine‐tuning strategy is least open to atypical views as it restricts the share of secondary stakeholders and only allows external inputs after the fuzzy front end phase when key decisions regarding the innovation have been made.     

Stakeholder relations and the persistence of corporate financial performance

We examine the effect of a firm's relations with its nonfinancial stakeholders, including its employees, suppliers, customers, and communities, on the persistence of both superior and inferior financial performance. In particular, integrating and extending the resource‐based view of the firm and stakeholder management literatures, we develop the arguments that good stakeholder relations not only enable a firm with superior financial performance to sustain its competitive advantage for a longer period of time, but more importantly, also help poorly performing firms to recover from disadvantageous positions more quickly. The arguments are supported by the analysis of a series of first‐order autoregressive models. Our findings further suggest that the positive effect of good stakeholder relations on the persistence of superior performance is not as strong as that of some other firm resources, such as technological knowledge, but it is the only factor examined that promises to help a firm recover from inferior performance. Therefore, the role of positive stakeholder relations in helping poorly performing firms recover is found to be more critical than its role in helping superior firms sustain their performance advantage. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nostalgia versus Pragmatism? How attitudes and interests shape the term sustainable agriculture in Switzerland and New Zealand

National public debates on sustainable agriculture are often framed by the respective attitudes and interests of the dominant stakeholders involved.     

How Do Social Media Affect Analyst Stock Recommendations? Evidence from S&P 500 Electric Power Companies' Twitter Accounts

Research summary : The importance of firm‐stakeholder relationships is gaining increasing attention. Although a theory of the drivers and consequences of stakeholder pressure has been developing, it focuses on pressures from organized stakeholders such as shareholders, NGOs, and activists, and does not incorporate the emerging possibility that individual voices may matter. By exploring corporate Twitter, which facilitates movement of individual stakeholders such as customers to a higher stakeholder class by providing them with a greater sense of power and urgency, we study the circumstances under which customer voices significantly affect analyst stock recommendations. We find that favorable reactions to firm‐initiated messages matter, directly or indirectly, depending on the messages' growth implications. Customer‐initiated negative messages have a significant impact only with high volume and formal institutions that support customer opinions. Managerial summary : Social media is increasingly used by firms for disclosing information and engaging stakeholders. Yet, we know little about whether and how social media usage matters. We show how corporate Twitter usage may influence analyst stock recommendations. Our interviews of securities analysts suggest that social media is not institutionalized yet, but increasingly used as a source of channel checks, especially for vibes, validations, and so on. Our analyses of corporate Twitter accounts show that both firm‐initiated and customer‐initiated tweets can have significant impact on analyst recommendations under certain conditions. For firm‐initiated tweets, the extent of retweets is an important factor, along with the content of tweets, in particular, growth implications. For customer‐initiated tweets, negative tweets matter, but only with high volume and regulatory structure that supports customer protection. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accessing antecedents and outcomes of RFID implementation in health care

This research first conceptualizes, develops, and validates four constructs for studying RFID in health care, including Drivers (Internal and External), Implementation Level (Clinical Focus and Administrative Focus), Barriers (Cost Issues, Lack of Understanding, Technical Issues, and Privacy and Security Concerns), and Benefits (Patient Care, Productivity, Security and Safety, Asset Management, and Communication). Data for the study were collected from 88 health care organizations and the measurement scales were validated using structural equation modeling. Second, a framework is developed to discuss the causal relationships among the above mentioned constructs. It is found that Internal Drivers are positively related to Implementation Level, which in turn is positively related to Benefits and Performance. In addition, Barriers are found to be positively related to Implementation Level, which is in contrast to the originally proposed negative relationship. The research also compares perception differences regarding RFID implementation among the non-implementers, future implementers, and current implementers of RFID. It is found that both future implementers and current implementers consider RFID barriers to be lower and benefits to be higher compared to the non-implementers. This paper ends with our research implications, limitations and future research.     

With greater power comes greater responsibility? takeover protection and corporate attention to stakeholders

Using takeover protection as an indicator of corporate governance, this study examines how an exogenous shift in power from shareholders to managers affects corporate attention to non‐shareholding stakeholders. Two competing hypotheses are entertained. The shareholder view predicts that stronger takeover protection will lead to a decrease in corporate attention to shareholders and non‐shareholding stakeholders alike, as managers divert resources from shareholders to the pursuit of their private interests. The stakeholder view, in contrast, predicts that stronger takeover protection will increase corporate attention to non‐shareholding stakeholders. Because catering to non‐shareholding stakeholders contributes to the long‐term value of the firm, managers will be more likely to attend to those stakeholders when relieved from short‐termism triggered by the threat of hostile takeovers. Using a sample of 878 U.S. firms from 1991 to 2002, the study finds that an exogenous increase in takeover protection leads to higher corporate attention to community and the natural environment, but has no impact on corporate attention to employees, minorities, and customers. Additional analyses show that firms that increase their attention to stakeholders experience an increase in long‐term shareholder value. These findings provide additional evidence that relief from short‐termism is a likely source of the increase in corporate attention to non‐shareholding stakeholders following the increase in takeover protection. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Achievement assessment for enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementations based on critical success factors (CSFs)

This paper addresses a framework to critical success factor (CSF) assessment of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation, and proposes a structured approach to help a small manufacturing enterprise (SME) identify the key requirements and measurements that determine its achievement of ERP implementation. Based on realistic data, critical success factors are converted into quantitative information to reflect measurements including cost, schedule, and goal achievement that must be addressed during implementation. One outcome of this study is that some CSFs are more important than others. Another outcome is that great emphasis should specifically be placed on CSF5, “people.” A third outcome is that a “good” balance can be reached based on schedule, cost, and achievement level such that desired achievement levels are attained at a low cost and a reasonably short implementation time (schedule) using simulation.     

基于资本治理理论的企业所有权安排--股东至上理论与利益相关者理论的逻辑统一

企业所有权安排有两种不同的理论流派：“股东至上”理论和利益相关者理论。公司中的利益相关者应分为资本所有者和其他利益相关者两类,只有资本所有者才是企业所有权的主体。因此,两大理论并不是绝对对立和冲突的,在企业所有权安排上,都统一于“资本”这个概念,都是基于资本治理理论下的企业所有权安排问题。物质资本和人力资本所有者在企业所有权中的最优配置份额,取决于各个资本的谈判力。物质资本和人力资本都应纳入“企业治理”范畴,不能强调一方而忽视另一方,并根据资本作用的不同．对不同企业实施分类治理,合理地安排企业所有权,以实现资本所有者利益最大化。     

Stakeholder influences on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry

We examined how managers' perceptions of different types of stakeholder influences in the Canadian forestry industry affect the types of sustainability practices that their firms adopt. Both influences involving withholding of resources by social and ecological stakeholders and those involving directed usage of resources from economic stakeholders were found to drive such practices. We found that the industry and its stakeholders have moved beyond a focus on early stages of sustainability performance such as pollution control and eco‐efficiency. However, more advanced practices, such as those involving the redefinition of business and industrial ecosystems where firms locate in a region so that they can exchange and utilize wastes generated by other firms, are in their infancy. Stakeholders and firms in the industry are focused on the intermediate sustainability phases involving recirculation of materials and redesign of processes including sustainable harvesting of lumber. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Unions on CSR: Is There a Trade-Off Between Employee-Oriented and Non–Employee-Oriented Policies?

Strategic managers are consistently faced with decisions of how to allocate a company's scarce resources to meet the demands of shareholders and other powerful and legitimate stakeholders. This article analyses whether higher union density at company level pushes management to engage more in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Drawing from stakeholder theory and the resource allocation approach of CSR as well as union voice and monopoly models, this article finds that companies have to substitute non–employee-oriented CSR with employee-oriented CSR as union density increases but is still at low levels. At higher levels of union density, companies can complement both types of CSR. This perhaps represents a reinforcement of mutual interests between management and organized labour, which has implications for managerial prerogatives as well as union positioning in the labour and political process.