Continuous and changing stakeholder engagement for organisational sustainability: Proposing the stakeholder engagement flow model

Abstract

Stakeholder engagement has been at the forefront of the organisational sustainability debate, particularly focusing on operational sustainability practices (OSP). While sustainability literature increasingly focuses on sustainable business models (SBMs) and the relationship to OSP, research on stakeholder engagement in SBMs and how this relates to engagement in OSP has been scarce. Based on case study research, this paper contributes to the debate by first providing empirical evidence on engagement practices for implementing SBMs. Second, this paper proposes the stakeholder engagement flow model, highlighting how stakeholder engagement for implementing SBMs need to be adapted in relation to stakeholder engagement in OSP. While stakeholder engagement is often continuous for a broad range of stakeholders, successfully implementing SBMs may also require changing engagement practices both in terms of engagement approach and role of stakeholders. The results advance the theoretical debate on stakeholder engagement for organisational sustainability and support practitioners to rethink and evaluate their stakeholder engagement efforts when aiming to implement OSP and SBMs.