Organisational drivers of capabilities for multi-stakeholder dialogue and knowledge integration

Abstract

Business and policy actors increasingly make use of multi-stakeholder interactions (MSI) as a corporate social responsibility strategy to understand, influence, harmonise and meet stakeholders’ social, environmental and financial expectations and so to create value. While many researchers and practitioners have recently described the role of MSI for sustainable innovation and development, little is known about how organisations can develop a capability to effectively create and maintain a dialogue with stakeholders and learn from them. The paper explores the organisational characteristics driving two key capabilities needed for effective MSI: stakeholder dialogue and knowledge integration. Based on the empirical evidence from four business cases, the research follows an explorative approach building upon stakeholder and organisational learning theories. Findings indicate that the ‘involvement of senior management and employees’, ‘open culture’, ‘vision towards sustainability’ and ‘hierarchical structure’ are key drivers of stakeholder dialogue and knowledge integration capabilities.