From Stakeholder Communication to Engagement for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study of LG Electronics

Abstract

While multi-stakeholder engagement is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is less understanding in the literature about how the private sector can enhance such engagement at an institutional level. In this study, we examine the case of LG Electronics (LGE), one of South Korea’s most sustainable firms. This case study highlights the key strategies that LGE employed in engaging stakeholders for the SDGs, with a focus on stakeholder scope and engagement over three phases: (1) stakeholder communication; (2) stakeholder involvement; and (3) stakeholder engagement. In addition, this paper emphasizes governance mechanisms that facilitated more effective stakeholder engagement, including the company’s Corporate Sustainability Management (CSM) strategies, CSR Committee and Sustainability Management Council. These findings also highlight the usefulness of the common language provided by the SDGs in stakeholder engagement and provide practical implications for the private sector in contributing to the shared global agenda.

How Higher Education Promotes the Integration of Sustainable Development Goals—An Experience in the Postgraduate Curricula

“…Furthermore, the impact of companies' CSR communication is important to determine how firms really contribute to society through their CSR strategies. In addition, companies report their results linked to the different SDGs, consequently increasing information and transparency in their business management [50], especially the SDG 4 in HE, "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all".…”

Communication Management in Promoting Knowledge and Creativity in Fostering Innovations in the Creative Organizations

“…The digital environment provides opportunities for more active interaction with customers and other stakeholders and for using their insights to develop innovation (Atanassova & Clark, 2015;Kim & Choi, 2019) and enables the development of new digital business models (de Oliveira & Nogueira Cortimiglia, 2017). Innovation activities in value co-creation processes become more efficient as organizations involve more actors from different settings in their activities (López-Rubio et al, 2020;Hein et al, 2019), use contacts and strategic partnerships (Hein et al, 2019), this way being able to more quickly identify the needs and problems of stakeholders, hear and consider various proposals (Ranjan & Read, 2016), understand value dimensions from the perspective of other groups (Boyd & Koles, 2019), enable manifestation of stakeholders' creativity and knowledge, promote knowledge-sharing (Jun & Kim, 2021), use not only internal but also external resources (Hein et al, 2019), accelerate organizational learning (Mastio et al, 2020), develop new ideas more consistently and ensure their implementation and dissemination (Gustafsson et al, 2012). It is evident that the need for promoting creative collaboration of various stakeholders, generation of new ideas, sharing knowledge and experience acquire increasing importance in innovation activities and value co-creation processes; therefore, communication management solutions must be strategized accordingly.…”

“…Hwang et al (2003) note that corporate websites perform many functions and enable to reach all stakeholders by coordinating messaging strategies. In addition to numerous functions, a well-designed website is a tool to shape the organization's image and reputation (Gustavsen & Tilley, 2003;Schumann et al, 1991), presents the organization to internal and external stakeholder groups (van den Bosch et al, 2006), develops corporate social responsibility activities (O'Riordan & Fairbrass, 2008), helps to develop partnerships to achieve strategic goals and implement fundamental changes (Jun & Kim, 2021), to increase stakeholder involvement in the organization's activities (Jun & Kim, 2021;Hoffmann & Lutz, 2015), to search for employees (Egerová & Eger, 2017), acts as an e-commerce and service booking platform (Kim et al, 2012), allows to analyze customer behavior, choices and to build their loyalty (Zhang et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2012), etc. It is noted that in digital organizations, corporate websites are becoming an essential tool for implementation of marketing activities, used to find out the expectations and needs of target customers, build credibility and trust, attract and protect customers, present products and services and successfully sell (Obednikovska et al, 2019).…”

Main Challenges and Opportunities in Higher Education to Promote Sustainable Development Goals. The Effectiveness of Digital Teaching Methods in Times of COVID-19

“…Furthermore, the impact of companies' CSR communication is important to determine how companies really contribute to society through their CSR strategies. In addition, companies report their results linked to the different SDGs, consequently increasing information and transparency in their business management [47].…”