Stakeholder management: a systematic literature review

• Pages: 44-59
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-08-2017-0172
• Published date: 20 September 2018
• Date: 20 September 2018
• Author: Matteo Pedrini,Laura Maria Ferri
• Subject Matter: Corporate governance,Strategy

Stakeholder management: a systematic

literature review

Matteo Pedrini and Laura Maria Ferri

Abstract

Purpose –The stakeholder theory is a prominent management approach that has primarily been

adopted in the pastfew years. Despite the increase in the theory’suse, a limited number of studies have

discussed ways to develop, execute and measure the results of using this strategic approach with

stakeholders. This studyaims to address this gap in the literature by conducting a systematicreview of

the stakeholdermanagement process.

Design/methodology/approach –Five databases were selected to search articles published from

1985 to 2015. The keywords used were stakeholder management, stakeholder relationship and

stakeholder engagement.Starting from 2,457 articles identified using a keyword search, 33 key journal

articleswere systematically reviewed usingboth bibliometric and qualitativemethods for analysis.

Findings –The results highlight that stakeholder management is increasingly embedded in corporate

activities, and thatthe coming of the internet, social networking and BigData have put more pressure on

companies to develop new tools and techniques to manage stakeholders online. In conclusion,

synthesizing the findings and developed framework allows the understanding of different streams of

researchand identifies future steps for research.

Originality/value –While literature reviews are a widespread practice in business studies, only a few

more recent reviews use the systematic review methodology that aggregates knowledge using clearly

defined processesand criteria. This is the first review on stakeholdermanagement in which the structure

is existingknowledge on strategy development,execution and the measurement of performance.

Keywords Stakeholder management, Systematic review, Stakeholderengagement,

Stakeholder relationship

Paper type Literature review

Introduction

The past century has seen increased attention around stakeholders in both the academic

and the managerial contexts. The stakeholder concept was first introduced by a memo of

the Stanford Research Institute in 1963, and it referred to “those groups without whose

support the organization would cease to exist.” Since then, the definition has evolved and

increasingly moved toward more active and influencing relationships between stakeholders

and firms. Thus, some scholars have focused their attention on the influence that

companies and stakeholders could exert on each other (Savage, 1991;Freeman, 1984),

while others have underlined the juridical relationship (Carroll, 1989;Donaldson and

Preston, 1995) or the role in the value-creation process (Clarkson, 1995;Freeman, 1994). It

is, however, the seminal work by Freeman in 1984 that determined a turning point. The

author proposed a view of a firm as the convergence of interests and expectations that

needed to be considered and integrated into the firm’s strategy. Since then, the attention

has moved to stakeholder management (SM) and focused on the methods through which

firms could build and organize relationships with the different stakeholders to improve their

ability to respond to their expectations (Habisch et al.,2011). More recent developments

have started to consider how SM relates to firm performance, investigating how the

Matteo Pedrini is based at

Universita

`Cattolica del

Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.

Laura Maria Ferri is

Assistant Professor at

Universita

`Cattolica del

Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.

Received 27 July 2017

Revised 9 August 2017

30 March 2018

Accepted 28 June 2018

PAGE 44 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jVOL. 19 NO. 1 2019, pp. 44-59, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 DOI 10.1108/CG-08-2017-0172

understanding of stakeholders’ claims could serve business objectives (Rana

¨ngen and

Zobel, 2014;Heikkurinen and Bonnedahl,2013;Matos and Silvestre, 2013). In addition, SM

has gained increasing attention among practitioners. The growing importance is mainly

driven by the escalating stakeholders’ awareness of the impacts related to the business

activity and by the need to demonstrate a commitment to good business behaviors.

Moreover, it is becoming more and more evident to managers that SM makes good

business sense and leads to better performance.

In light of these advancements, this article presents the results of a systematic literature

review, which offers a comprehensive view of the published works on SM. Earlier efforts

have mainly adopted a narrow and specific perspective, thus extending the knowledge

about the various facets of SM. However, an integrated examination of SM is missing, which

is what this work aims to achieve through a novel broader perspective. To meet this

objective, 2,457 articles have been searched, and 33 of them have been selected using a

keyword search that allowed SM in for-profit organizations to be emphasized. The review

was run using both bibliometric and qualitative methods. In so doing, the paper contributes

to the literature, as it delineates the state-of-the-art of the studies on SM, proposes a

structured outline and identifies possible future directions of study. The aspiration is to

contribute to promoting greaterefforts in both research and practice.

The remainder of the article is structured as follows. The next section builds the theoretical

framework around the definition of SM to identify the main elements that constituted the

base for the analysis. Afterwards, the research methods that guided the work are

described, and the results of the systematic review are presented through descriptive and

thematic analyses. The article ends withthe discussion of results and suggestions for future

developments, and limitationsare proposed.

Stakeholder management: theoretical background

SM has its roots in the stakeholder theory, formalized by Freeman in 1984. According to this

theory, profit maximization is not the sole objective of the business activity, but equilibrium

among stakeholders’ expectations is identified as the necessary condition for the survival

and success of the firm in the mid-longterm (Donaldson and Preston, 1995;Clarkson, 1995;

Post et al., 2002). Although originally considered opposed to the shareholder view

(Friedman, 1970), the debate has more recently moved away from the idea that

stakeholders and shareholders’ satisfaction are competing objectives, in favor of a view in

which they are mutually beneficial (Berman et al., 1999). To reach equilibrium, firms cannot

rely on the spontaneous growth of stakeholder relationships, but they need to develop a

managerial approach through which to establish durable and sustainable ties (Freeman,

1999). In this sense, a firm must commit to develop a wide network of relationships –not

limited to shareholders, employees or clients –and invest in nurturing them to make them

relentlessly more effective(Perrini and Tencati, 2006).

Extant literature links SM to both economic and normative rationales. As far as the former is

concerned, previous studies defined SM as a system that helps an organization improve

decision-making (Freeman and Evan, 1990;De Colle, 2005;Kaltoft et al.,2007)or

accountability process (Bowman et al.,1992;Campbell et al.,2006;Scott et al.,2003).

Again, some scholars mainly focused on the opportunity to reduce risks (Fama, 1970;

Godfrey et al.,2009;Graves and Waddock, 1994) or to strengthen one’s reputation and

trusting relationships (Barringer and Harrison, 2000;Fischer and Reuber, 2007;Jones,

1995). The normative rationale instead looks at SM as a system motivated by the firm’s

moral orientation and institutional view (Friedman and Miles, 2006;Jones and Wicks, 1999),

its commitment to respect propertyrights and social contracts (Phillips, 2003;Freeman and

Evan, 1990;Donaldson and Preston, 1995), to contribute to the common good (Argandon

˜a,

1998), or to promote principles of equitable justice (Phillips, 1997;Clarkson,1995).

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