The Complexity of Stakeholder Engagement

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) – an organization’s perceived societal responsibilities (Brown and Dacin 1997) – is an increasingly important component of corporate agendas. A critical aspect of CSR implementation is successful stakeholder engagement (Lawrence 2002), defined as “an organization’s efforts to understand and involve stakeholders and their concerns in its activities and decision-making processes” (Partridge et al. 2005, p. 6). A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in, or who may be impacted by, an organization’s actions (Muirhead et al. 2002). Past research in this area has focused on cooperative relationships (e.g., social alliances, see Berger, Cunningham, and Drumwright 1996); empirical research is needed that explores relationships where stakeholder interests conflict. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary findings on successful stakeholder engagement, explore success factors, and establish a future research agenda.