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The research reported in this paper takes a critical look at the process of multi-stakeholder consultation and management in a PPP project environment, to fill the gaps in the existing literature. It considers the various problems encountered on PPP initiatives around the world that have led to public opposition and failure of some PPP projects. Two interconnected aspects are tackled: definition of the principal project stakeholder and the management of the principal project stakeholder, as a multi-stakeholder. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Existing theory and practice of project stakeholder management is analysed through case studies and other sources, and the uniqueness of a PPP project environment, which influences PPP multi-stakeholder management approaches, is established.

Current tensions and public protests across Africa, North and South America, Australia and Europe around PPP projects are highlighted, and these seem to be centred on public stakeholders' marginalisation. It is found that the public outcry across continents is characterised by a marginalised public.

Results advocate a paradigm shift by accepting multi-stakeholding as central to PPP project management. A multi-stakeholder management model is proposed, which will move the public from the margins of the PPP project space to the centre where fundamental decisions are made from conception to facility ownership and operation.

The study takes a pragmatic approach to the problem of exclusion of the public in PPP projects. It is one of few studies to bring the public to the centre of PPP project processes.

Past integrated marketing communications (IMC) frameworks have established brand contacts as important sources of information and feedback. This paper aims to discuss how the presence of multiple brand stakeholders and the proliferation of digital media increase the amount of brand information generated exponentially. When a firm fails to harness this information, it risks misalignment between brand identity and brand image, which, in turn, tarnishes brand-equity.

Past IMC frameworks are reviewed and extended to identify specific brand contact points between multiple stakeholders that hold significant potential to dynamically reconfigure brand identity. Theoretical propositions regarding the IMC function’s role in managing these contact points to generate brand-equity are offered.

The brand contacts described and their successful integration into a firm’s brand-equity strategy extend current IMC-based brand-equity models and suggest fruitful, novel avenues for creating brand-equity. Further, these brand contacts offer practical examples of how the scope of marketing communications can be redefined.

This paper contributes to the body of research on the elevation of IMC to a strategic level function. In addition to the synergistic communication of the brand offering, IMC needs to play a pivotal role in coordinating the contacts between the brand and stakeholders, and in extrapolating relevant brand insights from these contacts.

Disaster risk reduction is prominent in the international policy agenda, and the year 2015 brought together three international policy frameworks that contribute to disaster risk reduction (i.e. the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Change Agreement – COP21). However, there is a dearth of effort at identifying and aligning the specific educational needs of built environment professionals with the three policy frameworks. This is needed to facilitate the incorporation of the contents of the policy frameworks into built environment professionals’ training. Therefore, this study aims to map the educational needs of built environment professionals with the core areas of the three international policy frameworks.

This study utilized CADRE (Collaborative Action towards Disaster Resilience Education) research project outcomes alongside the earlier mentioned three international policy frameworks. A comprehensive desk review was done to map the educational needs identified in the CADRE project with the core priority areas of the three policy frameworks.

The study revealed the educational needs that are significant towards an effective implementation of the core priority areas of the three international policy frameworks.

This study would be beneficial to the built environment professionals involved in disaster risk reduction. They will be aware of the specific knowledge areas that would aid the successful implementation of the aforementioned three international policy frameworks.

The outcomes of the study would be beneficial to higher education providers in disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. It has identified the knowledge and competency gaps needed to be bridged in the curricula to meet the demands created by the international policy frameworks.

This paper draws on and extends corporate political strategic theory through examination of how trade associations were used in reaction to ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in New Zealand. It is well established that firms can influence the legislative and regulatory process either individually and/or collectively via trade associations. The findings of this research reinforce current theory by demonstrating that firms use their membership in trade associations to gain expertise they lack, and to leverage their influence through collective advocacy. Large firms were found to be more likely to engage in collective action than small firms, and collective action was more likely on high profile issues than issues that were not receiving significant public and political scrutiny. The findings, however, also necessitated an extension of existing theory to explain firms’ response when faced with competing stakeholder demands. When the social and economic objectives of a firm diverged, trade associations were utilised in the dual and contradictory strategies of protecting a firm’s positive environmental image while simultaneously advocating less stringent environmental regulatory outcomes.

Previous scholars have assumed that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can reduce the liability of foreignness and increase profitability by investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, empirical validation of this assumption has rarely been attempted. This study aims to provide empirical evidence that the adoption of multi-stakeholder initiatives, which are globally recognized as signals of CSR, helps MNEs increase profits from internationalization.

Fixed effect models, which address model misspecification problems, and instrumental variable estimation, which controls for the endogeneity in firms’ choice of internationalization, offer empirical evidence supporting the moderating effects of global multi-stakeholder initiatives on the relationship between internationalization and firm performance.

This study examines the moderating role of multi-stakeholder initiatives in the relationship between internationalization and firm performance, drawing on signaling and stakeholder theories. The results suggest that the signaling effect of multi-stakeholder initiatives can help MNEs overcome the liability of foreignness and, therefore, profit from overseas markets.

Although the internationalization–firm performance relationship has been a subject of debate in the field of international business, the role of firms’ stakeholder engagement in this relationship has been largely overlooked in previous studies. In this study, the authors explore the impact of multi-stakeholder initiatives on the internationalization–firm performance relationship. Our primary contention is that multi-stakeholder initiatives have moderating effects on this relationship by reducing the liability of foreignness experienced by MNEs in host countries. Furthermore, the findings suggest that active engagement in multi-stakeholder initiatives significantly contributes to the financial success of MNEs as they internationalize.

The aim of the paper is to investigate social sustainability by focussing on the stakeholder theory and by presenting specific levers and capabilities for building more socially sustainable organizations.

The paper is based on the analysis of recent academic and managerial literature. Through comparing theoretical and methodological perspectives from multiple authors, a specific theoretical and methodological viewpoint based on the stakeholder theory is proposed.

The paper discusses the idea that building socially sustainable organisations requires the management of multi-stakeholder processes that are physiologically conflicting and that often create paradoxical tensions. Participative settings of action and reflection and capabilities as reflexivity and “paradoxical thinking” are proposed as key levers for dealing with multi-stakeholders processes towards a more socially sustainable organizing.

This paper raises reflections focussed on the “social pillar” of sustainability and does not consider different types of organizations in different multi-stakeholders processes. Such a perspective does not exhaust the variety of cases and research studies that could be considered in the field and further developed.

The value of the paper is in its construction of a framework for both research and practical purposes in the domain of management and sustainability. The work also attempts to link the concepts of reflexivity and paradox to a methodological proposal for leading the organizational journey towards social sustainability.

The present study aims to contribute to the growing stream of literature about the network perspective of value co-creation via key account management (KAM) by exploring how firms, in complex industrial markets, use key account strategies to create value, not only for buyers and sellers of industrial products/services but also, more widely, for larger ecosystems of stakeholders. The research question this paper seeks to address is how the KAM approach promotes value co-creation in multi-stakeholder ecosystem.

To answer this research question, this study uses a qualitative research approach based on data triangulation. This study focuses on the market access (MA) strategies implemented by a multinational UK-based pharmaceutical company within the Italian multi-stakeholder health-care ecosystem over several years.

The results show that KAM in complex networks acts as a catalyst for value creation, through multiple interactions with different actors and an ad hoc configuration of five strategic levers: product performance, economic impact, institutional relationships, commercial organization and communication. These levers are able to unlock the appropriate value drivers and form a specific “market access mix” implemented by the firm to both promote the adoption of the firm’s products and generate value for all market stakeholders.

The study offers an innovative and comprehensive evidence-based model for designing specific MA strategies aimed at co-creating value within multi-stakeholder ecosystems. The proposed MA mix outlines the fact that knowledge, relationships and innovation are not unique factors that can be leveraged by stakeholders to co-create value.

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of key issues and concepts related to discussions of the internet, its governance, and its multi-stakeholder model.

The method adopted is to discuss definitions of internet, to identify the key characteristics of internet, to define the multi-stakeholder approach, and to discuss the results it has achieved.

The article finds that the internet is different from other networks, albeit not exactly in the ways that are commonly mentioned, and it finds that the internet's current governance mechanisms can be improved, in particular by increasing the role of more traditional governance mechanisms such as intergovernmental organizations.

The analysis and conclusions are not found in previous literature, and they are meant to provoke further research and discussion.

This chapter focuses on an innovative effort in the Italian context in which a complex web of partnerships was created as the foundation of an alternative model of health care. More specifically, the start-up of a health-care organization – Welfare Italia Servizi (WIS) – is analyzed and discussed with respect to its sustainability.

The process of organizing a sustainable health care is analyzed through the theoretical lenses of multi-stakeholders management and partnership perspectives.

The possibility of developing dense knowledge about the WIS’s case has stemmed from our collaboration with the organization board with regard to a research process intended to monitor the organizational start-up and its sustainability challenges.

The case provides new insights into the dynamic nature of building multi-stakeholder partnership in a complex environment; the developmental life-cycle challenge of multi-stakeholder partnership, and the meaning of sustainability. The case suggests a tapestry of issues such as how sustainability may be “paradoxical,” dynamic, led by different and sometimes conflicting logics, and changeable over time like a growing tree in an intricate forest.

The case can stimulate learning and discussions both within the community of practitioners and the community of academics with respect to which promising conditions could help address the challenge of starting-up a sustainable organization in the health-care field.