Although stakeholder engagement (SE) is presently considered a priority in the management scholars’ research agenda across all domains, there is still no shared theory nor practice on the concept since it lacks clarity and consistency both at conceptual and managerial level. Our study is aimed at depicting and at the same time disentangling the complexity of the SE concept, by outlining its distinctive characteristics and the way they interplay in framing SE. This study is exploratory and it is designed according to an interpretive qualitative methodology. It relies on 14 in-depth interviews which involved a purposive sample of corporate executives, senior consultants and academic scholars selected on the basis of their established expertise in stakeholder relationship management practices. Our evidence points at SE as a dynamic, recurring and self-propelling dialogic process, started and managed by the firm. This process is marked by a progressive opening of the company toward stakeholders which relies on sharing and negotiating a stake that company and stakeholders put forth for confrontation and adjustment. Dialogue appears as the fuel encouraging and moving on this process by allowing parenthetic interaction, reciprocal understanding, and anticipation of stakeholder expectations. Furthermore, SE emerges as a process difficult to tackle with due to its complexity and ambivalence characterized by inner contrasting tensions.

Gambetti, R. C., Romenti, S., Biraghi, S., UNCONVERING STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT: A DELPHI APPROACH TO UNRAVEL COMPLEXITY, Paper, in Proceedings of the ICA Pre-Conference, (Edinburgh, 07-07 June 2013), Queen Margareth University, Edinburg 2013: 1-15 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/50364]

UNCONVERING STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT: A DELPHI APPROACH TO UNRAVEL COMPLEXITY

Gambetti, Rossella Chiara;Biraghi, Silvia
2013

Abstract

Although stakeholder engagement (SE) is presently considered a priority in the management scholars’ research agenda across all domains, there is still no shared theory nor practice on the concept since it lacks clarity and consistency both at conceptual and managerial level. Our study is aimed at depicting and at the same time disentangling the complexity of the SE concept, by outlining its distinctive characteristics and the way they interplay in framing SE. This study is exploratory and it is designed according to an interpretive qualitative methodology. It relies on 14 in-depth interviews which involved a purposive sample of corporate executives, senior consultants and academic scholars selected on the basis of their established expertise in stakeholder relationship management practices. Our evidence points at SE as a dynamic, recurring and self-propelling dialogic process, started and managed by the firm. This process is marked by a progressive opening of the company toward stakeholders which relies on sharing and negotiating a stake that company and stakeholders put forth for confrontation and adjustment. Dialogue appears as the fuel encouraging and moving on this process by allowing parenthetic interaction, reciprocal understanding, and anticipation of stakeholder expectations. Furthermore, SE emerges as a process difficult to tackle with due to its complexity and ambivalence characterized by inner contrasting tensions.
2013
Inglese
Proceedings of the ICA Pre-Conference
Pre-Conference of the 2013 International Communication Association (ICA) Conference
Edinburgh
Paper
7-giu-2013
7-giu-2013
Gambetti, R. C., Romenti, S., Biraghi, S., UNCONVERING STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT: A DELPHI APPROACH TO UNRAVEL COMPLEXITY, Paper, in Proceedings of the ICA Pre-Conference, (Edinburgh, 07-07 June 2013), Queen Margareth University, Edinburg 2013: 1-15 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/50364]
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10807/50364
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact