1 We understand CSR as a positive corporate contribution to sustainable development. A stakeholder is defi ned according to Freeman (1984), which means that stakeholder dialogue is defi ned here as interactive, two-way communication on a sustainability issue between a company and those who can affect or are affected by its activities. Stakeholder engagement is a broader concept than stakeholder dialogue, since it does not require communication to be reciprocal and interactive. Nonetheless, this paper refers several times to stakeholder engagement -fi rst, because it is frequently used in corporate discourse, and second, because stakeholder plans and policies often encompass both one-way and two-way communication.Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Mgmt. 15, 298-310 (2008)

In this article, we seek to advance understanding of nongovernmental organization (NGO) strategies with regard to influencing corporations. We study two contrasting NGO strategies (symbolic gain and symbolic damage), which simultaneously target the same corporation on the same issue. In so doing, we highlight three previously neglected dimensions of NGO influence strategies: (a) the influence effected by contrasting strategies; (b) the interplay between contrasting strategies; and (c) the dynamic relation between firm— stakeholder resource dependence relationship and NGO influence strategy.

ABSTRACTb asr_364 249..284The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the conditions under which Businessnongovernmental organization (NGO) interactions lead to improvements in corporate social responsibility (CSR), by assessing the role that the stakeholder context of the firm plays in the processes. As a case study it takes an interaction process between one NGO and one company with both collaborative and confrontational traits, spanning eight years and two issue fields, palm oil and soy, which are characterized by varying stakeholder contexts. The analysis demonstrates that the business-NGO interaction induced a change from a direct to an indirect corporate responsibility, and clarifies how interdependencies between the company and other stakeholders than the NGO influenced the interaction. The stakeholder interdependencies vary per issue field: In some issue fields, the stakeholder context allows for effective, collaborative interaction between business and NGO, while in another issue field, characterized by different stakeholder interdependencies, collaborative, constructive interaction Mariëtte van Huijstee, PhD, is a researcher at and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK. between the same business and the same NGO is not feasible and, in addition, less effective in terms of CSR than confrontational interaction.

As the market and civil society sectors reflect different core logics, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that partner with companies need strategies to cope with these differences. This paper seeks to provide insight into the coping strategies of environmental NGOs that partner with corporations. We present an assessment framework to analyse the strategies of the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature Netherlands as case studies. The analysis demonstrates that the strategic options for a partnering NGO are guided and constrained by the choices the NGO makes with regard to its action strategy towards companies. Although individual NGOs manage to cope adequately with the challenges that the partnership trend poses to their organisations, we argue that the partnering trend also creates challenges for the NGO field as a whole.

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