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This article explores Nordic countries’ and companies’ sustainability practices. It explores how nations like Denmark, Finland, and Sweden and companies such as Novo Nordisk and Ørsted achieve top sustainability rankings through their distinctive approach to stakeholder cooperation. It discusses the historical and cultural context that has shaped the Nordic approach, emphasizing the importance of long-term vision, stakeholder engagement, and cooperative strategies. It provides insights into how these practices contribute to achieving sustainable development goals and offers valuable lessons for global businesses seeking to integrate sustainable practices into their operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a novel stakeholder-oriented framework that highlights variance in the application and expression of gender bias in the upper echelons. Directed by their relationship with the firm's leadership, we theorize that stakeholders' appraisals of top female leaders map onto a categorical and complex continuum. At the "categorical" end of this continuum, stakeholders neither have access nor are attentive to capability cues from the leader, increasing their reliance on stereotypes and gender biases in their leader evaluations. At the "complex" end of the continuum, stakeholders have access and are attentive to capability cues from the leader, decreasing their reliance on stereotypes and increasing their ability to accurately evaluate the leader. Between these ends, stakeholders evaluate female leaders by applying stereotypes and striving for accuracy to varying degrees. Each region on this continuum is linked to an array of behavioral responses, directed by stakeholders toward a target leader, that differ in valence and intensity. Our framework has significant implications for understanding a variety of social biases beyond gender, and enables the development of tailored strategies that can be used to facilitate accurate leader evaluations by all stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neglect of marginalized stakeholders is a colossal problem in both stakeholder and entrepreneurship streams of literature. To address this problem, we offer a theory of marginalized stakeholder-centric entrepreneurship. We conceptualize how firms can utilize marginalized stakeholder input actualization through which firms should process a variety of ideas, resources, and interactions with marginalized stakeholders and then filter, internalize, and, finally, realize important elements that improve a variety of related socioeconomic, ethical, racial, contextual, political, and identity issues. This input actualization process enables firms to innovate with marginalized stakeholders and develop marginalized stakeholder capabilities. To this end, firms fulfill both their moral and entrepreneurial claims to marginalized stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a stakeholder theory of corporate governance grounded in classical property rights theory, adopting the view that governance should help free individuals to maximize their collective welfare. In contrast to the agency view of corporate governance, we submit that the central problem in corporate governance is to devise coalitional contracting solutions to the collective action problems inherent in team production and team innovation. Agency problems and other contracting problems resulting from shirking, hold-up, market power, and externalities are best understood in this context. We develop design principles for the allocation of property rights to mitigate each of these contracting problems by reducing stakeholders' vulnerabilities to opportunistic behaviors. We extend earlier efforts to build a stakeholder theory of corporate governance by considering a more comprehensive set of transaction problems and analyzing the comparative efficiency of different governance arrangements for different types of firm–stakeholder relationships and different economic contexts. One conclusion from our theory is that giving primacy to shareholders, or any other group of stakeholders, is a comparatively inefficient solution to governing the modern global and knowledge-driven corporation. We discuss the implications of our theorizing for the debate about the purpose of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational injuries in the construction industry have plagued many countries, and many cases have shown that accidents often occur because of a combination of project participants. Assembled construction (AC) projects have received extensive attention from Chinese scholars as a future trend, but few studies have explored the interrelationships and potential risks of various stakeholders in depth. This study fills this research gap by proposing a multi-stakeholder AC risk framework. The study surveyed 396 stakeholders, then analyzed the collected data and created a risk framework based on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and the CRITIC weighting method. The results revealed that factors like "regular supervision is a formality," "blindly approving the wrong safety measures," and "failure to organize effective safety education and training." are vital risks in AC of China. Finally, the study validates the risk factors and the framework with 180 real-life cases, which shows that the proposed framework is theoretically grounded and realistic. The study also suggests multi-level strategies such as introducing AI-based automated risk monitoring, improving the adaptability of normative provisions to technological advances, and advancing the culture of project communities of interest to ensure AC's safe practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government, companies, and residents are the most important stakeholders in the sustainable development of traditional villages. Balancing the participants' interests is a challenge for the green development of traditional villages. By constructing a tripartite evolutionary game model and introducing reward and punishment policies under the stakeholder theory, this study examined changes in traditional village conservation strategies regarding the timing of the regulation in the development process. Based on the reform data of Wan Liushu Village and government support policies, the proposed theoretical model was employed using numerical simulations, and the influence of critical parameters on stakeholders' decisions was discussed. The results show that (1) four stable points exist in the theoretical model, but only the (0,1,0) strategy point is consistent with traditional village conservation and development interests. At this point, the government adopts weak regulation, the company adopts green development, and the residents choose not to participate in the strategy. (2) Only when the government incentives exceed the companies' illegal benefits. The companies will choose the conservation and development strategy for stability. (3) The government has to ensure that penalties are more substantial and significant than the cost of regulation to avoid the (0,0,0) strategy point. At the (0,0,0) point, the government adopts weak regulation, the company adopts a no green development strategy, and the residents adopt a non-participation strategy. (4) Under the government's limited regulatory strategy, residents can only be motivated if their incentives exceed participation costs. This study can provide a reference for the green development of traditional villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the transition of public libraries to administrative corporations through the lens of stakeholder theory. It positions public libraries as pivotal institutions harboring extensive collections vital for fostering educational and cultural growth. Focusing on the Kaohsiung Public Library in Taiwan as a case study, this research highlights successful tactics adopted during its shift toward administrative corporatization. Such a transformation aligns with the strategic objectives of governments, stakeholders, and communities at large. By applying stakeholder theory, the study investigates the broader societal contributions of administratively corporatized public libraries, their role in advancing public library services amidst organizational changes, and their capacity to augment the distinctiveness of urban landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many tourism destinations are facing overtourism situations, where the increase in visitors negatively impacts on residents' life. Even if the perceptions of overtourism amongst residents have been analysed, the use of that perception by other key stakeholders remains largely unexplored. The discursive co-optation of the concept of overtourism amongst supply-side stakeholders, governmental and civil society stakeholders, provide a unique insight to discuss the use of power through tourism-related discourses and to face societal challenges in tourism destinations. Taking Majorca (Spain) as a case study, we carry out semi-structured interviews to government officials, tourism suppliers (e.g., hoteliers, cruise companies, intermediaries, holiday rentals), NGOs and researchers, to analyse how the perception of overtourism is used by those actors to promote their own agenda, often in opposition to the interests of other stakeholders. The article offers a dual contribution: on the one hand, it shows how the term "overtourism" is co-opted by supply-side stakeholders to justify their own interests and strengthen their agendas. On the other hand, we argue that the lack of consensus on how to address overtourism shows the limits of stakeholder theory to solve societal challenges, and the need of perspectives of social justice to build consensuses around the issue of overtourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is closely related to the "dual carbon" objective and the concept of sustainable development. The impact of ESG performance on audit efficiency, especially on audit delays, is still an issue to be studied in depth. Drawing on stakeholder theory, sustainable development theory, shared value concept and corporate social responsibility theory, this study adopts regression analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the impact of ESG on audit efficiency based on the data of A-share listed companies in the period of 2015–2022, with a focus on audit delay. The results of regression analysis show that ESG performance has a significant effect on reducing audit delay, and audit delay is reduced by 0.007 on average for each unit increase in ESG performance. In structural equation modeling, the effect of ESG performance on audit delay is more significant, with an estimated value of -0.555 and a standard error of 0.097. In addition, the study shows that the corporate ESG performance on audit efficiency has a positive impact is more pronounced among firms with stronger ESG practices, especially among non-state-owned firms with lower institutional investor ownership and firms audited by "Big Four" firms. These results not only demonstrate the importance of ESG performance in improving audit efficiency, but also provide important guidance for corporate management and policy making. This study enriches the existing literature on corporate ESG performance and audit efficiency and provides new perspectives and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is critical to identify ways to successfully implement blockchain which can transform the operations of shipping companies in the coming years. In this light, this study aims to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) of blockchain implementation using a comprehensive theory-driven approach, which is largely ignored by previous studies. The theoretical model is grounded on the synthesis of diffusion of innovation, resource-based view, institutional theory, stakeholder theory and technology-organization-environment framework. Correspondingly, five main-criteria and seventeen sub-criteria are identified. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is applied to rank the CSFs based on the feedback from experienced managers and directors working in maritime shipping companies. The findings show that in descending order of importance, the top five sub-criteria of blockchain implementation are relative advantage, internal leadership, human resources capability, scalability and ease of use. This study has provided a novel theoretical framework for blockchain CSFs research, offered strategy formulation in relation to marketing, technological skills upgrade, investments and subsidization, and knowledge cluster sharing to support blockchain implementation in the maritime industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic created extreme conditions in which the need for care was overwhelming and led to competing stakeholder demands. What are society's expectations of business in such conditions, and how might these expectations challenge traditional understandings of the business in society relationship? Using a qualitative survey during the initial stages of the pandemic, the study draws on participants from the US public to identify what they viewed as responsible and irresponsible business behavior in response to the COVID‐19 crisis. Analysis reveals that participants' perceptions are strongly rooted in ethics of care reasoning. This reasoning exposes gaps in CSR and stakeholder theories around "who and what really counts", while offering a different conception of balancing business self‐interest with external demands. Drawing on this finding, the study joins scholarship highlighting the need for a political care movement and argues that untangling care from neoliberal capitalist logics would resolve many of the competing stakeholder demands and paradoxes that characterize grand challenges such as the COVID‐19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research recognizes the increasing importance of the preservation of the natural environment for society as well as for the corporate sector. The study adopts a stakeholder-agency theory perspective to examine the influence of characteristics and effectiveness of the board of directors on the environmental disclosures made by the corporate sector. The method of content analysis was adopted for collecting information on board characteristics, board processes, and environmental disclosures made by the sample companies. The extent of environmental disclosure has been measured by using an Environmental Disclosures Index. It was found that a higher proportion of independent directors, the absence of chairman-CEO duality, and the overall board effectiveness had a significant positive influence on the extent of environmental disclosures. However, board diversity represented by female directors on the boards was found to have a statistically insignificant impact on environmental disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Quality standards (QS) (e.g., ISO 9001) play an important role in assuring the quality of goods and services for organizational stakeholders on a global scale. Recent work has highlighted the role of QS in communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices to a firm’s stakeholders making both the QS adoption decision and the timing of adoption of immense strategic importance to top managers. However, the types of QS and their intended and unintended beneficiaries vary widely, making it difficult for managers to choose QS that are in accord with their CSR goals. Further, current economic (cost/benefit) and institutionally-based theoretical approaches do not provide managers with adequate guidance in making strategic adoption decisions. Rapid developments in QS practices have also made it difficult for researchers to incorporate them into CSR theory. Drawing upon a literature review of QSs and stakeholder theory, this study presents a QS framework and taxonomy that integrates QS adoption timing and beneficiaries. The framework also presents four configurations of QS adopters and their associated beneficiary stakeholder groups, enabling both researchers and practitioners to more completely understand the complex nature of stakeholder pressures on organizations.

Abstract In the context of the European Commission’s proposal for the harmonization of front-of-pack nutrition labels (FoPLs) across the European Union scheduled for 2023, Portugal’s position on the preferred format to be adopted remains unclear. Our study aims to (1) describe the context of the political decision regarding FoPL’s implementation in Portugal, (2) identify and characterize the actors involved in the debate and (3) evaluate their influence in the decision-making process and their position on the various formats of FoPLs considered. A document review complemented by a qualitative study with eight experts revealed the actors involved in the implementation of FoPLs in Portugal. The stakeholder theory was used to qualify their level of influence on the decision. To complement the experts’ analysis, the views of 1014 Portuguese consumers on stakeholders’ influence were collected via an online questionnaire. The results show a strong mobilization of the Portuguese Ministry of Health on the issue through the production of several technical and scientific reports. The background of the political decision related to FoPLs in Portugal highlights the commitment of some influential stakeholders in favour of the traffic light format, including one of the major Portuguese retailers, Continente. Nevertheless, in the face of public support for the Nutri-Score from a growing number of actors, Portugal has not yet adopted a specific format, partly due to some resistance from the agricultural sector. Portugal, by lack of consensus and agenda setting, is now awaiting formal harmonization of FoPLs by the European Commission. This study provides useful insights for public policy actors when promoting interventional measures.

Background: Business incubators (BIs) are considered enablers of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, however there remains a lack of consensus as to whether incubators are effective or even as to how incubator efficacy should be measured. Aim: This study seeks to develop a consolidated framework for measuring the efficacy of BIs using stakeholder theory as its theoretical basis. This study set out to answer the following research questions: What is the relevance of stakeholder theory to incubator efficacy measurement? What stakeholder groups are relevant to BIs in South Africa? What relationships between stakeholder groups and perspectives on BI efficacy exist that would underpin a framework for measuring incubator efficacy? Setting: Empirical research was conducted with BIs operating within South Africa, with various incubator types, contexts and industry focus included in the study. Methods: A sample of nine incubator managers were interviewed as part of this exploratory qualitative study, demonstrating the breadth of the incubator industry in South Africa. Results: A framework comprising two distinct but related perspectives on incubator efficacy is proposed. Further to this, two additional concepts – incubator-stakeholder conflict and restrictive incubator context – were identified. Conclusion: This study proposes a consolidated framework for measuring the efficacy of BIs, considering a variety of stakeholder perspectives, and may inform policymakers regarding business incubation in the future. Contribution: This study identifies and defines incubator-stakeholder conflict as a concept, making a theoretical contribution to the field. Additionally, the study proposes a comprehensive stakeholder-based framework proposed for measuring incubator efficacy.

The article offers a comment on the article "Where do stakeholders come from?, " by Sharon A. Alvarez and Sybille Sachs, which appeared within the issue. The authors feel that stakeholder composition is a dynamic process that is generated through the actions of entrepreneurs. They suggest that the strategic management approach is limited and does not take into account the dynamic nature of stakeholder generation. The authors then present an entrepreneurial perspective on stakeholder theory, describing the bidirectional generation of stakeholders and the role of entrepreneurial choice in the formation of a firm's stakeholder composition.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 prohibits U.S. listed firms from bribing foreign government officials for business purposes. We examine whether less transparent firms are more likely to violate the FCPA by testing whether their voluntary disclosure of country-level information explains the violation. We hand-collect voluntarily disclosed geographic information for firms cited for FCPA violations and for a matched control group of nonviolators. We test whether less transparent disclosure of operations (sales and long-lived assets) abroad explains whether firms violate the FCPA. We find supporting evidence. Next, we compare the transparency of FCPA violators that self-reported their violations with the transparency of our control group, as well as the transparency of non-self-reporters to the transparency of our control group. Regulators sanction self-reporters with lower penalties than non-self-reporters. We find that the former are as transparent as the nonviolators. Yet, non-self-reporters are less transparent, suggesting that they drive our results. Overall, our results suggest that more transparent reporting of foreign operations is associated with FCPA compliance. Our study contributes to understanding whether voluntary disclosure signals FCPA compliance, following disclosure theory and instrumental stakeholder theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]