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This paper aims to discuss the notion of social impact of social impact measurement in social enterprises by supporting the multiple-constituency theory as a contribution to this under-theorised issue. Moreover, the paper proposes the stakeholder-based approach as the most appropriate solution for selection among metrics related to the growing number of social impact measurements.

The paper proposes a review of social impact measurement studies by considering contributions from both academia and practitioners, while providing a reassessment and conceptualisation of this issue in terms of the multiple-constituency theory.

The paper criticises the “golden standard approach” to social impact measurement according to which social enterprises have to find one standardised metric capable of determining an organisation’s real impact. The golden standard approach promotes a more “political view” of social enterprises, according to which multiple stakeholders set performance standards based on their viewpoints regarding the measurement’s purposes.

The paper responds to the urgent call to define a theoretical framework that might guide social impact measurement, seeking to avoid the current lack of order and transparency in existing practices that could serve as a vehicle for camouflaging corporate social un-sustainability.

The multiple-constituency approach should discourage organisations from opportunistically selecting a social impact measurement with the sole purpose of proving a higher impact, as, within the proposed new perspective, social impact metrics are no longer managed independently by the social enterprises themselves. Instead, these metrics are defined and constructed with the stakeholders. As a result, social enterprises’ manipulative intentions should diminish.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether multiple stakeholders imbue a single or multiple meanings to a city brand.

The branding literature hints at multiple stakeholders but most studies take a single stakeholder perspective. A two‐stage quantitative study was used to examine similarities and differences between two stakeholder groups. The context for the study is city branding.

The evidence suggests that different external stakeholders do have different brand meanings associated to a city brand. Each stakeholder group applies their own filter to interpret the meaning of the city brand. Essentially, a new conceptualisation of the city brand is provided.

Although the samples are reasonably large, it is important to apply the framework to other city brands to test for generalisability. Future research might also test the filter concept in the more general context of corporate branding.

Organisations need to recognise the multi‐faceted, multiple meanings of the brand as a whole. Corporate communication requires adjustment from a convergence approach to one that recognises different brand purposes for each stakeholder group. The ideas are readily usable in not‐for‐profit communities.

The paper joins a small number of studies that challenge the conventional wisdom that convergence of brand meaning across stakeholder groups is an ideal state. The paper develops a filter concept as a way of showing that different stakeholder groups might use a different filter or lens to interpret a city brand.

The debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as shared value creation is trapped between management scholars and business ethics scholars, focusing merely on the distribution of values from an outcome-oriented perspective. The result is a juxtaposition of shared value from either a corporate or a societal perspective, providing only little attention to the actual communication processes supporting the creation of shared value. The purpose of this paper is to re-conceptualize shared value creation from a communicative approach as an alternative to the current situation caught between the management and societal perspectives.

Building upon recent constitutive models of CSR communication, this conceptual paper explores the potentials and implications of re-conceptualizing shared value creation as an alternative approach that recognizes the tensional interaction processes related to shared value creation.

The paper suggests a new conceptualization of shared value creation, which is sensitive to and able to advance the understanding of the tensional and conflictual interaction processes in which the continuous negotiation of corporate and stakeholder interests, values and agendas may facilitate a new understanding of shared value creation.

In order to succeed with the shared purpose of creating shared value (CSV), the company and the multiple stakeholders should neither disregard nor idealize the interaction processes related to shared value creation; rather, they should acknowledge that processes filled with tensions and conflicts are prerequisites for CSV.

A re-conceptualization of shared value creation that provides an alternative approach that is sensitive toward the tensions and conflicts occurring between corporate voice and multiple stakeholder voices.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that corporate communications is becoming less predictable as interaction with stakeholders is moving from organizational control toward “issue arenas”, places of interaction where an issue is discussed by stakeholders and organizations both online and within the traditional media. The role of corporate communications and public relations (PR) is broadening beyond the traditional relationship management to issue arena monitoring.

The paper takes a theoretical approach with six axioms suggested.

Several central theories of corporate communications are combined with issues management and stakeholder theory to argue for a multiplicity of new “issue arenas”, which require an increased amount of monitoring. Six axioms are suggested for future research on corporate communications, and a mosaic of multiple strategies for multiple publics moved by multiple issues is recommended.

The axioms suggested require empirical testing with different arenas across contexts and cultures, and the axioms may change over time as the virtual arenas expand. Future studies should focus on the process of arena formation as well as the division of voice on the arenas.

Monitoring becomes central as corporate communication is less controllable. Corporate communication and PR will play a key role in organizational survival in the future through the processes of finding the right issues and “issue arenas” for interaction, facilitating the organization‐public debate and through this managing organizational reputation. A change in thinking is required, as identifying issues should precede identifying stakeholders.

The paper argues that organizational survival depends not only on communicating with the right stakeholders, but also on finding the relevant issue arenas in which organizations should participate in discussion.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a template to guide practitioners in the creation of multiple marketing plans that are intended to target different groups of stakeholders – some of whom are supportive, others adversarial, namely, the business-to-business (B2B) marketer’s agenda.

The methodology involved a combination of purposeful sampling, real-time participatory observation, action research and secondary data analysis. The main method of this research is analytical and conceptual with the objective of identifying the diverse groups of stakeholders with whom business marketers must interact.

In cases where multiple marketing plans were used for different stakeholder groups, B2B firms encountered lower levels of negative attribution from social network systems, mass media and subsequently public and governmental stakeholders.

This paper suggests the need for multiple marketing plans that target not only supportive customers but also neutral and adversarial stakeholders who represent a source of negative attribution because they have the potential to derail or even destroy the B2B firm’s marketing agenda. It is suggested that practitioners must also address those stakeholders who distrust or even dislike their firm and its marketing objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic process of brand meaning creation by multiple stakeholders during corporate rebranding in the digital environment.

By applying a symbolic interactionist perspective, the case study analyses a failed corporate rebranding of Gap. A variety of narratives by managers, consumers, designers, and marketing professionals were captured by collecting qualitative data on Facebook, Twitter, and professional forums on the internet.

The study demonstrates that the process of brand meaning creation is affected by the complexity of brand meaning negotiation within and between different stakeholder groups. The findings illustrate that the polarisation of brand meanings, in which both antagonistic and supportive forms co-exist, has a determinable impact on the outcome of corporate rebranding.

The study analyses one case of corporate rebranding failure with the focus being on the four key stakeholder groups. Future studies could examine multiple cases of successful and failed corporate rebranding, including a broader variety of internal and external stakeholders.

Marketing managers should engage multiple stakeholders proactively during the process of brand meaning creation. They are encouraged to learn from antagonistic incidents of brand meaning negotiation as well as to utilise opportunities arising during constructive episodes of brand meaning co-creation.

The study contributes to previous research by exploring how the process of brand meaning creation can trigger the collision of brand meanings, which lead to the failure of corporate rebranding.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate perceptions about and contributing activities to business-to-business (B2B) brand value by corporate managers and local stakeholders in the context of emerging markets.

The case study examines brand strategies of a multinational company in the high-tech industry. By using NVIVO, this research analyses the brand narratives by corporate managers of Axis Communications in Sweden and local stakeholders in Russia, Brazil and India. The study evaluates perceptions about brand value and contributing activities emphasized by corporate managers, local managers, local partners and local end-customers.

The findings demonstrate that corporate managers underutilize contributing activities by local managers and other local stakeholders, despite these activities being central to enhancing brand value. This research provides insights into how corporate and local managers can develop successful brand strategies in emerging markets. Consequently, a general typology of contributing activities to B2B brand value by local stakeholders is proposed.

The company-centred approach to B2B branding stresses the importance of unique components of brand value and their consistent communication to multiple stakeholders. Prior studies provide limited evidence on how various stakeholders perceive brand value and enhance it through their contributing activities. Following the stakeholder-encompassing approach, this study advances branding research by examining perceptions about and contributing activities to B2B brand value by corporate managers and local stakeholders in a cross-cultural setting. Future studies are recommended to apply a stakeholder-encompassing approach in developed and transition economies and considering other relevant groups of stakeholders.

This monograph reports on the strategic and operational roles of learning and development (L&D) professionals in Irish, UK European and US organisations including multinational corporations, small to medium enterprises, the public sector and not for profit organisations. This paper aims to investigate the contextual factors influencing L&D roles in organisations, the strategic and operational roles that L&D professionals play in organisations, the competencies and career trajectories of L&D professionals, the perceptions of multiple internal stakeholders of the effectiveness of L&D roles and the relationships between context, L&D roles, competencies/expertise and perceived organisational effectiveness.

The study findings are based on the use of multiple methods. The authors gathered data from executives, senior managers, line managers, employee and L&D professionals using multiple methods: a survey (n = 440), Delphi study (n = 125) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30).

The analysis revealed that L&D professionals increasingly respond to a multiplicity of external and internal contextual influences and internal stakeholders perceived the effectiveness of L&D professionals differently with significant gaps in perceptions of what L&D contributes to organisational effectiveness. L&D professionals perform both strategic and operational roles in organisations and they progress through four career levels. Each L&D role and career level requires a distinct and unique set of foundational competencies and L&D expertise. The authors found that different contextual predictors were important in explaining the perceived effectiveness of L&D roles and the importance attached to different foundational competencies and areas of L&D expertise.

This is one of the few studies to have investigated the L&D professional role in organisations from the perspective of multiple stakeholders using multiple research methods.

The focus of this paper is on developing a rationale for the use of transmedia storytelling in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. Transmedia storytelling involves telling stories across multiple platforms by multiple people that are still united by a central theme. The purpose of this paper is to develop a rationale for the application of transmedia storytelling for CSR communication and illustrate how Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You Mom” campaign demonstrates how transmedia storytelling can be found in the current CSR communication.

The first part of the story is theoretical development. The idea of transmedia storytelling is developed then translated into how it can be used in CSR communication. The key ideas are that the engagement with messages created by transmedia storytelling is the idea for capturing emotions in CSR messages and avoiding the backlash created by some CSR messages, such as advertising. Transmedia storytelling provides a lens for understanding and guiding the use of various social media channels in the distribution of CSR communication. A case study is they conducted to illustrate how P&G used transmedia storytelling in its “Thank You Mom” campaign. Qualitative content analysis is used to identify the plot lines in the stories and the overall storyworld that is being developed thereby illustrating how the concepts for transmedia storytelling can be applied to the case.

The results illustrate how transmedia storytelling can be applied to CSR communication and the potential benefits of this application. The primary yields are theory development for CSR communication and the insights from the case study.

The extant literature on strategic communication in general and CSR communication specially have shown only a passing interest in transmedia storytelling. This paper provides a very detailed rationale for applying transmedia storytelling to CSR communication and illustrates the utility of this approach with a case study. A detailed application of transmedia storytelling to CSR communication is new and can help advance both theory and practice.

This study aims to develop an ex-post impact evaluation method for public-private partnership projects (PPP) that addresses one of its main difficulties: the multiplicity of perspectives and stakeholders that exist in these projects.

This study first developed a conceptual evaluation framework called ‘Project Success Evaluation Pyramid Model’ (PSEPM) that was designed using a Design Science approach. Second, an impact evaluation method was designed based on the PSEPM. This evaluation method was tested and refined using three PPP projects. This article presents the refined conceptual model PSEPM, the evaluation method and one of the three tests: the PPP toll road.

The impact evaluation method describes how to evaluate the impact of an existing mega project from the perspective of multiple stakeholders and isolate the impact of the procurement method. Its application in practice is demonstrated with a PPP toll road project in Chile, in which 11 stakeholders were identified. Issues such as city segregation, deficient business model, the relevance of infrastructure availability, and deficient service-fee strategy were identified in the project. The evaluation method provides a judgement about the use of the PPP procurement method and about the overall impact of the project, reconciling the stakeholder perspectives.

The use of this approach could give greater clarity and legitimacy to the discussion over the use of PPPs by evaluating existing projects beyond the use of traditional time and cost measurements. Its originality is the systematic recognition and identification of stakeholder motives, purposes, and judgements over a project.