Stressed by Choice: a Business Model Analysis of the BBC

This paper aims to explain the recent defensive strategy of downsizing at the BBC. The paper rejects the analysis of both industry practitioner and neoclassical economics academic critics who represent the corporation as an all-powerful, abusive player in a market and instead develops an alternative concept of the business model, which focuses the pressures of financial viability and stakeholder credibility to explain the restructuring. We argue that the BBC's business model is stressed because it struggles to deliver what key stakeholders want and expect from the corporation, from a pot of revenue that is limited by regulation. The BBC's problem is compounded by demands for more programming hours following its move into digital and by the increasingly formalized demands of regulators on behalf of an absent consumer. The paper concludes that without reflexive, business-model-centred regulation, it is likely that the BBC's business model will become unsustainable.     

Taking (and Sharing Power): How Boards of Directors Can Bring About Greater Fairness for Dependent Stakeholders

One of the ways in which scholars have sought to broaden the discussion of the social responsibilities of corporations and their managers is through the development of the stakeholder concept. The primacy of shareholder interests in corporate‐governance processes and managerial action is, however, a myth that justifies all sorts of managerial self‐interest seeking and exploitation of particular stakeholder groups. What makes this myth particularly problematic—from the standpoint of fairness and corporate governance—is that not all nonshareholder stakeholders are equally situated with regard to their ability to secure fair treatment. In this article, I explore the ethical dimensions of board responsibilities to dependent stakeholder groups by first describing the differences between shareholders and nonshareholder stakeholders with regard to risk, examining why dependent stakeholders (stakeholders with legitimate and urgent claims, but no power) are particularly important from the standpoint of stakeholder risk, and discussing how stakeholder consultation might provide a partial fix to such problems. I will conclude with proposals for how boards can more faithfully discharge their ethical responsibilities to dependent stakeholder groups, and in so doing facilitate stakeholder involvement in corporate governance in ways that promote fairness in organization–stakeholder relationships.     

Conditional Influence Diagrams in Risk Management

This paper introduces conditional influence diagrams into risk management. A contaminated-site cleanup involving two stakeholders is used as a hypothetical case study. The treatment choices must satisfy several conflicting objectives. Any decision made by one stakeholder will affect the choices of the other stakeholder. In building the influence diagrams for each of the stakeholders, the logical relationship of all relevant factors is determined and the values of these factors are analyzed. The influence diagram for each stakeholder is conditional on the options available to the other stakeholder. The influence diagrams are, then, used to evaluate the possible choices of each stakeholder based on decision options of the other stakeholder. These results are analyzed using game theory methods to gain insights useful to risk management and to demonstrate how mutual trust and cooperation can lead to decisions benefiting both stakeholders.     

The relative importance of participative versus decisive behavior in predicting stakeholders' perceptions of leader effectiveness

Today's leaders are often faced with resolving paradoxes stemming from interrelated, yet contradictory demands. One example is the tension between participation and decision speed because, despite its advantages, stakeholder involvement often slows the decision-making process. Theory and research suggest that a “both-and” approach in which leaders simultaneously harmonize competing demands is associated with effectiveness. Consistent with this reasoning, we hypothesized that leaders rated higher in both participative and decisive behavior are perceived as most effective. Additionally, however, we hypothesized that stakeholders place different importance on these behaviors, with direct reports emphasizing participation and supervisors emphasizing decisiveness. Using a large 360-degree feedback dataset, several analyses conducted both within and between stakeholder groups supported these predictions. These results add needed nuance to the leadership literature, suggesting that a “both-and” approach may paradoxically result in some behaviors that are less predictive of effectiveness for certain stakeholders.     

Strategic responses to imposed innovation projects: The case of carbon capture and storage in the Alberta oil sands industry

Today's ‘activist’ attitudes and strong power of non-market stakeholders (such as government agencies, non-governmental organizations, labor unions) have triggered the phenomenon of imposed innovation projects. These are investment projects carried out by profit-seeking firms primarily in response to the demands of influential non-market stakeholders. Such projects are supposedly instrumental to the emergence of new, socially beneficial products and production processes. We use a stakeholder management perspective to analyze the case study of a set of salient imposed innovation projects in the realm of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, pursued in the 2011–2014 period by a number of energy companies in Western Canada. We describe the peculiarities of these projects and reveal the scope and drivers of firm-level actions in response to the pressure to pursue imposed innovations. The findings reveal a spectrum of strategic responses to imposed innovation pressures, with varying degrees of cooperation with other economic actors, and varying levels of engagement to tailor the imposed innovation to the firm's technological profile. We develop a set of propositions on the performance implications for firms implementing imposed innovation projects. The paper concludes with recommendations for policy makers concerned with the improved diffusion and effectiveness of such projects.     

Analyzing relational sources of power at the interorganizational communication system

Based on the critical theory of communication, managing stakeholder relations is significant to achieve more democratic decisions that reconcile diverse interests of various stakeholders. However, power inequalities among stakeholders might inhibit to achieve finely balanced decisions. More interestingly, these inequalities might emerge from the nature of communication among organizations. Conceptualizing interorganizational relations (IORs) as the relations of an organization with its stakeholders, the current study attempts to analyze the relational sources of power. Following a graph theoretical methodology, the frequency of interaction and trust were analyzed as the relational sources of power on a sample of 76 logistics firms. The findings of the study reveal that an organization’s frequency of interaction and level of trustworthiness affect its power over other organizations.     

A stakeholder perspective on process improvement behaviours: delivering the triple bottom line in SMEs

Abstract

The primary focus of operations management is to add value through operational processes. Considerable attention has been given to using process improvement (PI) techniques to reduce costs and time, in order to develop a competitive advantage for the wider organization. However, this narrow definition of value at times overlooks the triple bottom line (TBL) which can result in a number of unintended consequences, specifically issues related to environmental and social measures of performance. To address this, a stakeholder theory lens will be used to analyze PI activities within the context of small and medium-sized enterprises. The TBL will be used to complement the stakeholder perspective, to interpret the benefits that are realized from PI activities. This article highlights both the direct benefits from PI as well as more indirect benefits realized by involving a selection of salient stakeholders in PI. It will show how a developed view of PI can provide an important mechanism for delivering improvements to a firm’s TBL. The work concludes by highlighting the contributions made to both PI practice and stakeholder theory, while acknowledging the need for more research on PI, both from a stakeholder perspective and how it impacts a firm’s TBL.     

Engaging Stakeholders Through Corporate Political Activity: Insights From MNE Nonmarket Strategy in an Emerging African Market

As interest increases in the political engagement between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and emerging economy host governments, less is known about wider MNE stakeholder engagement and the development of nonmarket capabilities in institutionally fragile environments. This study investigates how MNEs engage stakeholders through corporate political activity (CPA) during the pro-market reform of Uganda's electricity generation sector. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews, archival materials and fieldwork notes, and is analyzed using an NVivo-supported grounded analytic method. We find both proactive and reactive leveraging of CPA to manage diverse stakeholders. We argue that the host government remains the most important political stakeholder in the early phases of reform, but changes in institutional and political environments necessitate strategic adaptations as the reform process progresses. These adaptations include the need for local engagement and the accommodation of multi-level stakeholder pressures. Our findings contribute to an understanding of corporate political capabilities in Africa's emerging markets, and illustrate how these capabilities can be strategically leveraged to effectively manage diverse stakeholders.     

基于SVN的重大工程组织安全行为价值网络及驱动路径研究

重大基础设施工程(以下简称重大工程)的实施涉及多方组织，组织之间形成复杂的利益相关者关系，合作效率及组织安全行为的有效性对重大工程安全管理绩效具有重要影响。本文基于价值理论、利益相关者理论和利益相关者价值网络(Stakeholder Value Network，SVN)分析方法，研究重大工程组织安全行为(Organizational Safety Behavior in Megaproject，MOSB)在利益相关者之间的价值交换和传递情况，构建了包含三类组织安全行为、八类利益相关者和61条价值流的MOSB-SVN模型。研究表明，MOSB-SVN模型能够通过识别关键利益相关者、关键行为和高分价值路径，得出各利益相关者的价值获取能力以及三类组织安全行为的执行效果。依据模型分析结果提出价值提升建议，为提高重大工程安全绩效提供新的思路。     

Stakeholder Engagement, Discourse Ethics and Strategic Management

The aim of this paper is to identify, review and assess two prominent recent trends in the literature on stakeholder engagement. Scholars in the first camp are referred to as Habermasians, owing to their reference and adherence to the work of the German philosopher most famous for elaborating on the concept of moral discourse. To these scholars, moral engagement is marked by specific conditions of communication which ensure that this communication is uncorrupted by power differences and strategic motivations. Others – those called here Ethical Strategists – argue that the engagement of stakeholders must be integral to a firm's strategy if it is to achieve real success. This camp is characterized by scholars contending that the distinction between strategy and morality is not only unfortunate, but logically unnecessary. They hold that good strategy properly understood must encompass what are typically recognized as moral concerns, because the very purpose of the firm and the capitalist system within which it operates is, when viewed rightly, the creation of value for all stakeholders. While recognizing the important contributions made by the Habermasians to the conversation about stakeholder engagement, it is concluded that, owing to the confluence of conceptual and practical concerns, the Ethical Strategists' position is the more attractive.     

On the Risk Management and Risk Governance of Petroleum Operations in the Barents Sea Area

In this article, we discuss issues of risk management and risk governance with respect to petroleum operations in the Barents Sea area. We will focus on the decision problems related to whether or not to open the Barents Sea for petroleum activities in special vulnerable areas. We will explore to what extent the International Risk Governance Council risk governance framework provides valuable insights for and assistance to the decisionmaker and other stakeholders (including the industry and NGOs). The study covers issues related to risk assessment and appraisal, risk acceptance and tolerability, the use of the precautionary principle, risk perception, stakeholder involvement, risk communication, and risk management. The overall aim of the article is to point to areas where the risk governance could have been and can be improved for these and similar decision problems.     

Exploring the drivers of corporate reputation integrated with a corporate responsibility perspective: some reflections in theory and in praxis

Corporate reputation is a multi-stakeholder concept that is reflected in the perceptions that stakeholders have of an organization. There is much evidence that reputation interacts diversely with different stakeholder groups and in relation to other concepts such as corporate responsibility. In this paper, we propose the implementation of the reputational quotient on a sample of Italian SMEs and attempt to discover and measure the relationship with corporate responsibility. Thus concluding that the instruments used for measuring and managing reputation can also be usefully employed in terms of corporate responsibility.     

Stakeholder strategies for the physician executive.

If physician executives are to be effective in confronting the environmental turbulence and uncertainty facing their organizations, they must effectively manage their stakeholders. This article extends the stakeholder approach described in the May-June 1989 issue of Physician Executive as a tool for the physician executive in the development of practical strategies to cope with turbulence and uncertainty. We suggest four generic strategies physician executives can use: involve supportive stakeholders, monitor marginal stakeholders, defend against nonsupportive stakeholders, and collaborate with mixed-blessing stakeholders. As an overarching strategy, a physician executive should try to change the organization's relationships with a stakeholder from a less favorable category to a more favorable one. The stakeholder can then be managed using the generic strategy most appropriate for the category.     

Socially Responsible Practices: An Exploratory Study on Scale Development using Stakeholder Theory

Socially responsible practices of firms have evolved into an important area of research in operations management; however, it remains challenging to identify specific scales that capture multiple dimensions of such social practices. In this exploratory study, we use stakeholder theory to develop new multi‐item measurement scales linked to multiple groups (i.e., internal, supplier, customer, and community stakeholders). Furthermore, we empirically test a higher order multidimensional construct that collectively assesses the socially responsible practices of a firm. Using these stakeholder‐derived constructs as taxons in a cluster analysis, we identify important patterns in the way that multiple groups of stakeholders are engaged. Finally, we demonstrate that the set of social practices are complementary and concentrating on one group can yield spillover effects to other specific stakeholder groups.     

Two Types of Vigilance Are Essential to Effective Hazard Management: Maintaining Both Together Is Difficult

Flexibility and adaptability are key capabilities for coping with persistent and pervasive uncertainties. The systematic organization of these capabilities is often called “adaptive management”; it is key to effective hazard management and important in risk governance. Vigilance is a requirement for effective adaptation. However, two distinct types of vigilance are necessary. Type 1 vigilance directly supports adaptive management. It is vigilance when you know what you are looking for: warning signals, filling gaps in knowledge, making sure that systems are working, etc. Vigilance of another sort, type 2 vigilance, is needed to address the surprises and institutional failures that are not part of orderly adaptive planning. Type 2 vigilance is vigilance when you don't know what to look for: observing and reflecting on confusing signals, anomalies, unacknowledged responsibilities, and surprises. The two types of vigilance require different institutional capabilities, and hence may work against each other in practice. Type 1 vigilance requires focus and a strong, knowledge‐based organizing framework. Type 2 vigilance, in contrast, requires defocusing and a questioning approach to both observations and concepts. This dilemma, coupled with demands for flexibility, is a severe challenge for organizations. There are a variety of actions and arrangements at various levels of societal organization that could maintain and enhance vigilance in managing hazards. Necessary, however, is the societal and institutional recognition that vigilance of more than one type is an essential part of hazard management and the commitment to follow through. Maintaining vigilance requires effort and must be an ongoing process.     

Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility: the Role of Formal Strategic Planning and Firm Culture

Scholars have paid considerable attention to studying the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance. Yet, little empirical research demonstrates what actually shapes or drives CSR. This paper builds a case that formal strategic planning is one such driver in that it creates awareness of and formulates responses to stakeholder demands for CSR. However, exploring single variable relationships is problematic, as other important endogenous factors need to be considered in explaining CSR. Specifically, firm culture is identified as influencing a firm's orientation towards the responsible treatment of stakeholders. One such cultural factor, humanistic culture, is argued to have a positive effect on CSR. By studying a sample of heterogeneous firms in Australia, results demonstrate that a formal strategic planning effort is positively linked to CSR. Further, a humanistic culture positively impacts CSR, after accounting for a firm's formal planning efforts.     

A Theory of the Stakeholder Corporation

There is a widely held view within the general public that large corporations should act in the interests of a broader group of agents than just their shareholders (the stakeholder view). This paper presents a framework where this idea can be justified. The point of departure is the observation that a large firm typically faces endogenous risks that may have a significant impact on the workers it employs and the consumers it serves. These risks generate externalities on these stakeholders which are not internalized by shareholders. As a result, in the competitive equilibrium, there is under‐investment in the prevention of these risks. We suggest that this under‐investment problem can be alleviated if firms are instructed to maximize the total welfare of their stakeholders rather than shareholder value alone (stakeholder equilibrium). The stakeholder equilibrium can be implemented by introducing new property rights (employee rights and consumer rights) and instructing managers to maximize the total value of the firm (the value of these rights plus shareholder value). If there is only one firm, the stakeholder equilibrium is Pareto optimal. However, this is not true with more than one firm and/or heterogeneous agents, which illustrates some of the limits of the stakeholder model.     

Knowledge Building: Developing Employees Through Education

Is it enough for an organization to develop the total individual? Beyond technical expertise and skills necessary to perform jobs, employees who are encouraged to learn are more willing and able to meet the needs, goals, and objectives of the organization. These employees who are will-rounded transition what they have learned into the workings of the organization and for the sake of the growth and development of the organization. Allowing employees to learn, organizations create a workforce capable of applying all the benefits of learning to the growth of the organization. Whether a corporation develops its own university, creates an alliance with traditional educational institutions or creates a virtual university, it gives the employees the opportunity to learn and develop. As Peter Drucker said in a 1994 interview, the growth industry of the future is the education of adults. The education and the development of executives and the workforce are a new commodity and organizations that support education will be placed at a distinct competitive advantage over organizations that do not. Imagine a workplace filled with employees who have realized self-satisfaction, employees who can of gather information, analyze information and make decisions. Imagine a learning organization consisting of employees with greater understanding of corporate politics, employees who are motivated and employees who are persistent in pursuing goals. Is it worth the expense to increase employees' knowledge through education? Is it worth the expense to develop employees to increase productivity and obtain financial goals for the shareholders and stakeholders? I think any organization not willing to invest in an employees' education is an organization that is `running a fever' and an organization that may have difficulties competing globally in the next millennium.     

Is it change? Or is it noise?

How can you tell the difference between mere noise, and a profound change headed your way? Your gut instincts may not always be a reliable gauge. It takes a long time for most people to become an executive leader. If you are typical, you were raised and trained in a different era, with different expectations. You see things with different lenses. So what can you trust? You can trust first principles. Ask yourself what you know about the reasons that changes are happening in this environment. Then ask yourself about what is being proposed--how does it fit with the roots of the changes in health care and your organization? The three change filters presented here can help you to figure out if it's change or just noise. Ask yourself: (1) what are the changes occurring in the health care industry; (2) is your organization ready for change; and (3) how likely is it that your organization will easily adopt this particular change? These three filters together will help you decide what is a truly important change, how ready your organization is for change, and whether it will adapt to this change with ease or difficulty.     

Strategies for Knowledge Creation in Firms *

We extend the knowledge‐based view by providing an explanation of how firms develop the capability to create knowledge. We take the view that firms are distributed knowledge systems composed of individuals who embody knowledge, and theoretically identify and empirically test the existence and effectiveness of two strategies – organization and project team – that promote their interactions to develop this capability. On the one hand, building on what we call the organization‐level innovation literature, we identify the organization strategy, which suggests investment in organization‐level integrative management practices to facilitate interactions to create knowledge among individuals situated in different parts of the system, independently of when a knowledge‐creation task is established and individuals are organized to create knowledge. On the other hand, building on what we call the team‐level innovation literature, we identify the project team strategy, which suggests investment in project team‐level integrative management practices to facilitate interactions to create knowledge among individuals once a knowledge‐creation task is defined and individuals are placed into teams to create knowledge. The two strategies are substitute approaches for the development of the capability, although the organization strategy appears to better predict outcomes of the capability. However, this approach might be more costly, so not all managers will choose to follow it.