Search

Recently, the research on the embeddedness of business-stakeholder relationships in society is gaining momentum. Here in this paper we present an approach for businesses and stakeholders' embeddedness based on John Dewey's Dewey, a well-known pragmatist thinker who elaborated a thick, original and innovative concept of democracy as an associated living, as a source of conjoint and shared experience between organizations and groups (including business and stakeholders) based on freedom, equality, and fraternity considered the democratic values. We develop the concept of democratic embeddedness, that is, the embeddedness that brings social progress and social hope, based on five main tenets: 1) A diverse, novel, and enriching conjoint experience 2) Cooperation based on equality, freedom, and fraternity 3) a higher degree of overlapping membership between stakeholders 4) Flexibility and adjustment between organizations 5) No isolated organizations or clusters of organizations. Consequently, a new role of the executive has described the democratic role, which consists of the promotion of the 5 tenets, requires democratic habits (courage, intelligence, open-mindedness), requires a scientific and experimental method for solving public problems, and creative and face-to-face communication (with new symbols and signs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Businesses are increasingly called upon to collaborate with community stakeholders to generate solutions to societal problems. Emerging pastures of research from multiple disciplines explore how effective community engagement can bear a positive impact on business performance, from improving talent retention to supporting a robust innovation ecosystem. While the importance of community is increasingly recognized, the lack of a precise consensus definition for "community" may impede meaningful scholarship and practical understanding of community engagement. Additionally, the concept of community is evolving, posing new facets of this stakeholder group ripe for exploration. Our symposium draws together five papers that provide new insights into the relationship between businesses and communities drawing from several disparate disciplinary traditions. Additionally, it offers a perspective from a community organizer of how to constructively and effectively engage communities in business practices. * Including Community in Governance to Deliver on Social Promises * Presenter: Kimberly McGinnis; U. of Alaska Fairbanks * Presenter: Cristina Gibson; Pepperdine Graziadio Business School * A Process Approach to Community Engagement for Change, Development and Sustainability * Presenter: Stephen Gibson; U. of California, Irvine * Community Matters: Role of Community Div. Climate & Com. Embeddedness in Employee Intent to Stay * Presenter: Barjinder Singh; Elon U. * Presenter: Margaret A. Shaffer; U. of Oklahoma * Presenter: T. T. Rajan Selvarajan; California State U., East Bay * Expatriate and Newcomer Adaptation: A Community Stakeholder Focus * Presenter: Mihaela Dimitrova; WU Vienna * Presenter: Marlene Gruber; -* Presenter: John Kammeyer-Mueller; U. of Minnesota * A New Stakeholder Model Based on Graph Theory for Understanding Communities * Presenter: Elisabet Garriga; EADA Business School [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we map the business and society field from a relational approach that allow us to understand the direction, the pace and velocity at which the field has been evolving and to identify the three main trends; (1) the number of components included in the business and society approach, (2) the emergence effect (3) the level of analysis that explains all three, moving from functionally towards supra-functionally oriented approaches in the field of business and society. Based on these trends and following a problematization approach, we propose a new approach, the complete supra-functional approach (SCA) based on relational sociology (Donati and Archer, 2015) which challenges the main positivist and modernist assumptions in the field ( the separation fallacy and the functionalism-positivistic concept of paradigm) following the problematization approach. We applied the SCA in the Covid-19 panorama as an example of how it works and what this entails in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an exploratory case study, we describe the role of metaphors in specific business and stakeholders relationships, which have never been researched before. Especially we focus on one type of metaphors, the champion metaphors those that following Rorty's definition promote social progress and social hope. As a result of the case study in Specialisterne, we found that the champion metaphor, the dandelion metaphor, helped to promote a change in all not only for stakeholders' perceptions but also for the Specialisterne' stakeholders have themselves in turn integrated people with autism or any other socially excluded groups into society. Several examples for each stakeholder have been provided such as suppliers, like Lego, who have launched new product lines for groups that were socially excluded children with autism and other disabilities, which improve their social and communication skills through playing therapy or customers like SAP, launching a worldwide program to include people with all type of disabilities. We conclude with a new management task for managing business-stakeholder relationships: business should identify what kind of metaphors they could promote among their stakeholders to take care of and integrate socially excluded groups into society. Of course, this requires a change in their business models and a change in their stakeholder relationships. Then, businesses will promote social progress and social hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the growing literature on value creation and value destruction in stakeholder theory, in particular to the emerging body of literature that seeks to link the capability concept, developed and promoted by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to stakeholder value creation. Whilst previous articles have particularly focused on Marta Nussbaum's notions of developing human capabilities as a path to promoting human dignity, this article engages in more depth with Amartya Sen's (1992) notions of agency and freedom. It shows how these notions enrich understanding of value creation and value destruction in stakeholder relationships, using Patagonia, a US American outdoor apparel company, as an illustrative example. Our paper will based on two key distinctions made by Amartya Sen that have not been fully utilized in the context of stakeholder value creation: one the one hand the distinction of freedom and achievement, and on the other hand the distinction between agency and wellbeing. We will, therefore, in this article define the concepts of stakeholder wellbeing, stakeholder agency, stakeholder freedom and stakeholder achievement in the context of stakeholder relationships. We will conclude our paper by setting out implications of Sen's approach for stakeholder management as well as some suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to calls for analyzing the boundary conditions of the relationship between core self-evaluations (CSE) and subjective career success, we examined how CSE interacts with occupational embeddedness to predict career satisfaction. Based on self-verification theory and the concept of situational strength, we proposed a contingent path model in which CSE relates to subjective career success through positive goal emotions. Using a sample of 140 alumni of two business schools, we further examined whether the direct and indirect effects of CSE on career satisfaction are weakest when individuals are highly enmeshed within their occupations. A time-lagged study with three measurement waves largely supported our hypotheses, showing that high-CSE individuals were more satisfied with their careers because they associated more positive emotions with their career goals. However, a high degree of occupational embeddedness attenuated the indirect effect of the CSE-career satisfaction relationship through positive goal emotions and compensated for low levels of positive goal emotions. We discuss theoretical implications for research on CSE, career goals, and career success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]