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How can managers reduce information asymmetry in dyadic manager-external stakeholder relationships in a complex and evolving environment? Addressing this question has significant implications for firm survival, growth, and competitive advantage.

We have adopted a multiparadigm approach to theory building, known as metatriangulation. We integrate the dynamic capabilities, sensemaking, and evolutionary theory literatures to theorize how managers can relate to stakeholders in a complex and evolving environment.

We propose, via a conceptual framework and three propositions, “evolutionary sensemaking” as the managerial metacognitive dynamic capability that helps managers hone their understanding based on the evolutionary changes in the stakeholder’s interpretations of information quality preferences. The framework unfolds across three evolutionary stages: sensing preferences' variation of the stakeholder, seizing preferences, and transforming for complexity alignment and retention. The propositions focus on managing complexity in stakeholder information quality preference, employing cognitive capabilities to simplify, interpret, and align interpretations for effective information asymmetry reduction.

To develop the metacognitive dynamic capability of evolutionary sensemaking, managers need to train for and foster the underlying complex cognitive capabilities by enhancing their (1) perception and attention skills, (2) problem-solving and reasoning skills, and (3) language, communication, and social cognition skills, focusing specifically on reducing the complexity embedded in stakeholder cognition and diverse stakeholder preferences for information quality. Contrary to the current advice to “keep things simple” and provide “more” information to the stakeholders for opportunism reduction, trust-building, and superior governance, our framework suggests that managers hone their cognitive capabilities by learning to deal with the underlying complexity.

The proposed framework and propositions address research gaps in reducing information asymmetry. It enriches the dynamic capabilities literature by recognizing complexity (as opposed to opportunism) as an alternative source of information asymmetry, which needs to be addressed in this stream of research. It extends the sensemaking literature by identifying the complexity sources – i.e. stakeholder preferences for diverse information quality attributes and the associated cognitive preference interpretation processes. The article enhances evolutionary theory by delving into microprocesses related to information asymmetry reduction, which the existing literature does not thoroughly investigate.

Stakeholders in complex capital projects are characterized by complicated interactions, adversarial short-term relationships and cooperative demand for deliverables. Unhealthy interfaces between stakeholders often lead to significant interface conflicts, which gradually become apparent in the construction stage. However, stakeholder interface health (SIH) has not been well understood and measured in the construction industry by either scholars or practitioners. It is essential to identify unhealthy interface relationships between stakeholders by comprehensively assessing SIH for enhancing project performance.

The study provided a comprehensive framework to assess SIH. The assessment was based on Wuli-Shili-Renli theory. Moreover, the CRITIC and Grey-TOPSIS methodologies were applied to precisely evaluate the SIH level. Besides, graph-based interface networks were developed to visualize SIH. At last, the framework was applied to a mass rapid transit project in China to test the validity of the study.

The result showed that stakeholder interfaces with strict contract constraints are healthier. On the other hand, IM behaviors make up for the soft coordination mechanism without contract constraints to a certain extent. The results of the case study were consistent with the actual project practices. The proposed framework provided a useful IM tool for assessing and visualizing SIH.

The limitation of this study is that only the mass rapid transit project was selected for empirical analysis to validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. It is recommended that the proposed framework be applied to other types of complex capital projects to further discussions in IM.

Theoretically, this study introduces a comprehensive framework to measure the health of stakeholder interfaces in complex capital projects, which helps to provide a theoretical basis and methodological support for stakeholder interface management.

Practically, applying SIH assessment to existing interface management procedures can help the project manager identify interface conflicts between stakeholders in time and eventually contribute to the improvement of PM performance. At the same time, the interface management team tracks the responsibilities of unhealthy interface stakeholders and requires them to take measures to improve the SIH level. Stakeholder interfaces with lower health scores should be given more attention. The proposed framework can serve as a novel IM approach to identify weaknesses in IM and take targeted management measures to alleviate unhealthy stakeholder interface relationships.

The study provides an innovative method for scientifically and accurately assessing SIH. This research can help scholars and practitioners in the project management field facilitate the diagnosis of unhealthy interface relationships and provide decision support for the project management theoretical foundation.

A major obstacle regarding the measurement of an organization's sustainability and accountability in the space economy is defining the context and boundaries of commercial activity in outer space. Here, we introduce an ecosystem framework to address this obstacle. We utilize this framework to analyze the space mining sector. Our ecosystem framework sets the space mining sector's boundaries and helps a firm identify key stakeholders, activities, policies, norms and common pool resources in that sector and the interactions between them; a significant step in structuring how to measure space sustainability and accountability.

Borrowing theories and perspectives from a wide range of academic fields, this paper conducts a comprehensive context analysis of the space mining ecosystem.

Using our ecosystem framework to define the context and set boundaries for the space mining sector allowed us to identify sustainability-related issues in the sector and offer roadmaps to develop sustainability measures and standards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first papers to introduce a framework to define boundaries in the global space economy and provides a tool to understand, measure and evaluate the space mining sector's environmental, social and economic issues.

The development and evolution of stakeholder collaborative innovation in megaprojects is impacted by various influencing factors. The effect of influencing factors on collaborative innovation performance (CIP) in megaprojects is not a simplistic linear relationship but an iterative and non-linear relationship that requires a dynamic perspective to analyze. Therefore, this paper adopts the system dynamic (SD) approach to investigate the dynamic and interactive relationships between the CIP and the influencing factors.

The study first develops a research framework with the system boundary of “CIP system – organizational collaboration subsystem – knowledge collaboration subsystem – strategic collaboration subsystem”. Then, the causal relationship model, the stock-flow model, and the mathematical equations were determined based on the literature review and the expert interviews. Finally, five performance improvement scenarios were designed according to the practice context of CIP in megaprojects, and simulations were performed using the Vensim PLE software to investigate the CIP from a dynamic perspective.

The findings reveal that the effect of different influencing factors on CIP grows non-linearly, with the cumulative effect becoming more pronounced as time advances. The incentive mechanism has the most significant effect, and the combined effect of multiple influencing factors has a highly significant facilitating effect on improving CIP. Strategic collaboration, organizational collaboration and knowledge collaboration are mutually conditional and reinforcing with each other, which ultimately promotes the improvement of CIP.

This study uncovers the inherent pattern and the interactive dynamic mechanism of factors for improving CIP in the context of megaprojects. It enriches the theoretical research in the area of collaborative innovation in megaprojects and provides practical management strategies for improving CIP.

The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated conceptual framework to better understand the psychological pathways connecting consumer perceptions to purchasing intentions for premium sustainable products.

The study develops a conceptual model that theorizes relationships between consumer perceptions of a firm’s innovation, competitive advantage, sustainable practices and stakeholder orientation. It proposes that stakeholder orientation mediates the effects of these perceptions on consumers’ willingness to purchase premium sustainable products. Additionally, lifestyle is hypothesized as a moderator. The model advances knowledge through eight testable propositions.

The conceptual framework specifies indirect, mediated and moderated relationships that have not been fully captured by past literature. It theorizes that perceptions of a firm’s innovation, competitive advantage from sustainable practices and stakeholder orientation indirectly influence purchase willingness through the mediating role of stakeholder orientation. Lifestyle is proposed to moderate these relationships.

This conceptual model offers insights for cultivating consumer perceptions that strengthen a firm’s stakeholder image and endorsement of premium sustainable products. Its validated theoretical lens and propositions can provide strategic guidance for addressing the challenges of higher price points for sustainable products through capturing psychological drivers of values-based decision-making. Future empirical assessment is recommended to validate the specified relationships in the model.

This paper aims to examine the processes of sustainability reporting assurance (SRA) and the influence they have on shaping perception from disclosures. Given the evidence of inconsistencies and ambiguities in assurance processes, this paper examines how legitimacy is attained and maintained at different stages of SRA.

Evidence collected from 23 semi-structured interviews with assurance providers (APs), consultants, professionals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (non-APs) was used to conduct a thematic analysis from the perspectives of interviewees.

APs and non-APs are united in recognising the value of SRA, although, perspectives on transparency between the two groups differ. Experience and industry knowledge are essential to SRA delivery with non-APs preferring accounting APs. Nevertheless, non-APs are concerned about the role of companies in deciding assurance scope, as it can affect scrutiny. APs favour data accuracy (as opposed to data relevance) assurance due to team dynamics and internal review influences, with the latter also restricting assurance innovation. APs are interested in accessing better evidence and stakeholder engagement evaluations. Providing advisory services was not rejected by all APs. The perspectives of APs and non-APs demonstrate how progress in SRA has gained pragmatic legitimacy with noticeable gaps that serve to undermine attainment of moral legitimacy.

SRA is a developing practice that will adopt changes as it continues to mature; some of these changes could impact findings in this research. General perspectives on SRA were sought from interviewees, this affected the ability for an in-depth focus on any of the range of interesting SRA issues that arose over the course of the research. Interviews were conducted with relevant parties in the SRA space that operate in the UK. Perspectives from parties outside the UK were not solicited.

Companies make an important decision to commission SRA. Findings in this research have highlighted specific non-APs issues of concern that can be useful in structuring operations and reporting regimes to facilitate assurance procedures. The findings will also be helpful to APs as they can direct more emphasis on stakeholder concerns towards demonstrating greater stakeholder accountability. Regulatory and standard setters can enact appropriate policies that can potentially drive the practice forward for assessment of cognitive legitimacy.

The findings provide relevant account of stakeholder voices on the quality of corporate disclosures that has a direct effect on the wellbeing of communities and sustainability of societies. Collective stakeholder input on expectations can shape sustainability discourse.

This research demonstrates the applicability of financial audit quality indicators in SRA processes, extends the debate around the effectiveness of new audit fields and highlights the challenges of maintaining legitimacy with different audiences.

Stakeholder capitalism has gained attention among business practitioners and academia, often discussed within the context of corporate social responsibility, ethical practices and values-based leadership. Many societal institutions, including businesses and higher education institutions, have a role to play in the transition toward stakeholder capitalism. This study aims to discuss insights gained from a multiyear research and pedagogical project coordinated among a group of academics and an Israel-based holding company to study the implementation of a values-based leadership process focused on establishing a stakeholder-oriented model in a variety of organizations.

Conducted over a decadal period, this project relied on a qualitative case study methodology. The project was conceived as an exploratory and inductive study examining organizations that implemented a values-based leadership model and a university that used this model for curriculum and pedagogy. Semi-structured interviews, observations of leadership practices and operations, and substantive reviews of organizational documents informed the study’s iterative methodology.

The case studies presented explore the benefits of a stakeholder capitalism and values-based leadership transformation in organizations and highlight the importance of senior leadership engagement at the outset to set the tone and direction of implementation while also role modeling values-based behaviors for the organization. The utility of aligning the new values-based approach with existing elements of the organizational culture and priorities was also identified in addition to the benefit of individuals linking the new values initiative to their personal values and life. These practices, and a broader stakeholder dialogue on values, helped establish a transition that was inclusive within the organizational hierarchy and in its connections to the larger society. The cases also explored how stakeholder principles and values-based leadership models can be integrated into management education based on the outcomes of the organizational investigations.

These case studies offer insight into the implementation of a values-based leadership framework, which draws on stakeholder theory, in diverse organizations across a for-profit to non-profit spectrum. These studies also provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the implementation of a common values framework in different sectors. The cases further highlight the potential role of business-education sectoral partnerships in educating a workforce that is dedicated to business for good.

This study aims to help develop “business principles for stakeholder capitalism” in two steps. First, the study defines internal logic of three theories of capitalism and two variants within each theory. Second, it examines approaches to integration into modern democratic capitalism. Treating the three theories as substitutes identifies relative strengths and weaknesses; complementarity and partial overlap approaches to integration study the institutional settings within which stakeholder capitalism operates. Empirical outcomes reflect competition between market and stakeholder businesses for participants, with institutional conditions determining the scope of collective action.

The approach aligns three typologies in a unique conceptual arrangement defining the three theories of capitalism: forms of capitalism, potential failures of each form and associated types of goods. The first method examines the internal logic of each theory of capitalism. The second draws on traditional narrative review of references documenting each theory of capitalism and variants together with modern Marxist anti-capitalism.

Three typologies align uniquely with the theories of capitalism, each having two variants. Both variants of stakeholder capitalism are compatible with compassionate capitalism, constitutional government or polycentric governance but not with self-interest capitalism, dictatorship or Marxism. A theory of modern democratic capitalism allocates roles for private, club and social goods with empirically variable mixes occurring across countries. Competition among different types of enterprises provides an empirical test for comparative advantages of stakeholder capitalism. Future research should consider approaches for testing the proposed conceptual scheme in practice concerning capacity to deal with grand challenges, wicked problems and black swan events.

Research approach is limited to logical examination of theories and literature documentation without direct empirical confirmation. The study does not address practical implications for managers and public officials or social implications concerning private incentives, stakeholder cooperation or collective action.

Originality lies in shifting terms of debate about stakeholder capitalism from advocacy of substitute theories to understanding of its relationship to market capitalism and collective action capitalism. Value lies in explaining desirability of theoretical integration of three types of capitalism into a comprehensive framework for modern democratic capitalism.

This paper aims to contribute to existing academic work and business practice by presenting original empirical findings and by providing insights into priority setting on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in organizations. From an academic viewpoint, it not only adds to previous work on the topic of SDG materiality (e.g. Van Tulder and Lucht, 2019) but also aims to contribute new insights into the steps that are crucial and influence the adoption of the SDGs in materiality assessments. It may also add to the literature by providing new knowledge on the strategic considerations that organizations may make and institutional dynamics that encourage organizations to implement the SDG materiality method.

By executing a national survey research in Belgium through a collaboration between academics of Antwerp Management School, Louvain School of Management (UCLouvain) and the University of Antwerp, and supported by Belgium’s Federal Institute of Sustainable Development, the authors have obtained several insights into the SDG landscape in Belgium for various types of organizations, including companies, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and educational institutions. This research builds further on a first national survey (SDG Barometer Belgium, 2018) on the adoption and implementation of the SDGs. However, an important aim of this research is to shift the emphasis to more prominent new elements, such as whether or not organizations use the SDGs in materiality assessments. While the main part of the data for this research were collected through an online questionnaire, document analyses were conducted based on the sustainability reports of BEL 20 companies, the benchmark stock market index of Euronext Brussels consisting of 20 companies traded at the Brussels Stock Exchange, and seven interviews were held to obtain additional insights.

A total of 386 organizations across sectors responded to the question “Does your organization perform a materiality analysis”, of which 210 organizations completed the question “Does your organization align the materiality analysis with the SDGs,”after an “exit route” based on a positive answer to the first question. When diving into the survey results, the authors see that no more than 12% of the 210 organizations performing a materiality analysis align their materiality analysis with the SDGs, while 14% indicate that they do not account for the SDGs at all in their materiality analyses. The results show that 41% of the organizations take into account the SDGs to a certain degree when performing their materiality analysis. Speculating on an explanation for these results, it may be the case that organizations do not yet think about coupling the SDGs to their materiality assessment, experience difficulties in practice or generally lack the knowledge for relating the SDGs to the sustainability topics that are relevant to them. This seems in line with other research (e.g. Van Tulder and Lucht, 2019), as the results of this study indicate that it seems to be difficult for organizations to relate the SDGs to the existing sustainability priorities or materiality analyses of companies.

The real contribution of this paper essentially lies in the description of the Janssen Pharmaceuticals case. The company recognized that today’s internally focused approach to goal setting is not enough to address global challenges. Hence, looking at what is needed externally from a global perspective, taking into account sustainability thresholds and setting ambitions accordingly, is needed to bridge the gap between current performance and required performance. From the Janssen Pharmaceuticals case, the authors learned that external stakeholders are an extremely useful source of information to address the required performance by using the SDG framework. For sure, SDG materiality analyses are still in an early phase of development and knowledge on how to conduct such an analysis may be lacking. Future efforts – or the lack thereof – may indicate whether or not companies consider such analyses as sufficiently relevant. Although the uptake of the SDGs is in progress, it remains to be seen which, if any, materiality method will eventually turn out as a new dominant way of defining material issues. The findings presented in this study hopefully serve as a basis for further investigation of the topic.

This paper aims to examine the Canadian financial sector’s reaction to opportunities and risks created by the green bond market in a low-carbon and climate-resilient (LCR) economy.

The authors used a concurrent mixed methodological approach that undertakes an online survey and semistructured interviews with critical green bond market stakeholders.

The most significant market driver in Canada is the reputational benefit for stakeholders, i.e. its ability to meet the high demand for sustainable finance and the marketing potential of its green credentials. The major market barriers are transactional costs, i.e. additional tracking required for reporting purposes, lack of market liquidity and identification of environmental impact or additionality. Canadian green bonds are also more likely to be evaluated on their green impact than their global market peers.

Limitations of this study include its focus on Canada, which may exclude or not apply to drivers and barriers in other green bond markets.

The paper helps create an accounting-based conceptual framework for key motivations and barriers that affect financial decision-making regarding green bonds.

The authors identify economic and policy-related barriers and drivers for green bonds, addressing the financing gap for the LCR economy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to identify and compare Canadian green bond market drivers and barriers and to examine relevant stakeholder- and policy-related approaches that can be targeted to scale this market effectively.