Multisided collaboration and double stakeholder approach coexistence in restaurants: From Corporate Social Responsibility practices to partnerships for the goals

Abstract

Restaurants have been becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities and impact; however, literature on corporate social responsibility has mainly applied quantitative methods to analyze the environmental dimension of sustainability. By drawing on the stakeholder theory approach (normative vs. instrumental) and through a qualitative narrative method based on the analysis of 41 open interviews, this study aims to evaluate which stakeholders are engaged in restaurant-related CSR practices and the nature of the relationship that ties them together. The results show that although a normative approach is more common, both approaches coexist in many cases. The emergence of multisided collaboration and a double approach enables achieving sustainability issues outside a strictly instrumental logic. This study contributes to the scant literature on CSR in restaurants by analyzing a wider set of stakeholders engaged in sustainability practices and indicating which practices are common and why and how stakeholders are involved.