Author:
Boesso Giacomo,Kumar Kamalesh
Abstract
PurposeFollowing the line of thinking that a firm is a nexus of contracts between stakeholders, with managers as “the central node,” the purpose of this paper is to examine how managers prioritize stakeholder relationships and to what extent firms engage in disclosures with the stakeholder groups they deem to be important.Design/methodology/approachData were simultaneously collected from two different national business contexts, Italy and the USA. The sample for this study consisted of 244 managers.FindingsResults of the study show that the power and legitimacy that managers associate with a stakeholder group cumulatively are the most important determinant of how managers go about prioritizing competing claims. The results also provide some evidence to the effect that the greater the priority accorded to a stakeholder group, the greater the efforts aimed at engaging the stakeholder groups (as evidenced by the voluntary disclosures made in the annual report).Research limitations/implicationsUse of self‐report measures, although widely used in behavioral and strategy research, may raise some concerns about the findings. Also, examining annual report's voluntary disclosures as the single source of assessing the stakeholder engagement efforts creates a potential limitation on the findings of the study.Practical implicationsThe stakeholder salience framework as examined in this study offers some practical insights into the understanding of which stakeholders do really matter and why. Furthermore, in attempting to relate stakeholder salience accorded to engagement/disclosure efforts, this study shows some potential limitations that managers may face because of prevalent social values and the need to maintain organizational legitimacy.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper lies in testing and extending an inferential theory of stakeholder management. The research highlights the unique role that managers play in managing firm‐stakeholder relationships.
Subject
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management,Strategy and Management,Accounting,General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Reference58 articles.
1. ACCA (1999), Social Reporting Award Scheme, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, ACCA Publishing, London.
2. Adams, C.A. and Frost, G.R. (2006), “The internet and change in corporate stakeholder engagement and communication strategies on social and environmental performance”, Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 281‐303.
3. Adams, C.A. and McNicholas, P. (2007), “Making a difference: sustainability reporting, accountability and organisational change”, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 382‐402.
4. Agle, B.R., Mitchel, R.K. and Sonnenfeld, J.A. (1999), “What matters to CEO? An investigation of stakeholder attributes and salience, corporate performance, and CEO values”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 507‐25.
5. Atkinson, A. (1997), “A stakeholder approach to strategic performance measurement”, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 25‐37.
Cited by
45 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献