Stakeholder marketing: theoretical foundations and required capabilities

Abstract

This conceptual paper argues that the marketing discipline should move away from its rather restrictive focus on customers toward a view of marketing that acknowledges the interrelatedness of stakeholders. Building on multiplicity theory, this paper presents stakeholder marketing as a revised perspective on marketing that views stakeholder networks as continuous instead of discrete multiplicities. This revised perspective offers a better understanding of stakeholder networks where (1) value exchange has become complex rather than dyadic, (2) tension between stakeholder interests has become explicit rather than implicit, and (3) control over marketing activities has become dispersed rather than centralized. The paper conceptualizes capabilities required by firms for dealing with each of these three transitions: systems thinking, paradoxical thinking, and democratic thinking. The paper discusses implications for firm performance, marketing theory, empirical research, and marketing practice and argues that embracing stakeholder marketing helps to reclaim territory for marketing in academia and business.

What causes imbalance in complex service networks? Evidence from a public health service

“…Notable exceptions include studies by Frow and Payne (2011), Quero and Ventura (2015), and Hillebrand et al (2015) that provide preliminary insights into the importance of balance and ways to achieve this. While the insights garnered shed light on the drivers of balance, they do not explore why service network imbalance (i.e., the situation where legitimate interests of at least one actor in a complex service network are not secured) might occur in the first place.…”

“…The point of departure for the study was the concept of balanced centricity (Gummesson, 2007(Gummesson, , 2008) that urges organizations to consider the interests of all actors in their network, a view closely aligned with stakeholder theory (e.g., Hillebrand et al, 2015;Donaldson and Preston, 1995).…”

Multiple stakeholders and B2B branding in emerging markets

“…However, existing branding research has evident gaps regarding B2B branding in the emerging markets (Herbst, Schmidt, Ploder, & Austen, 2014). Furthermore, prior research confirms the need to consider multiple stakeholders and dynamic interrelationships between them when investigating branding phenomena (Hillebrand, Driessen, & Koll, 2015;Leek & Christodoulides, 2011).…”

Business-Community Relationships for Extractive Industries: A Case Study in Peru

“…Following this line of thought, Laczniak and Murphy (2012) and Hillebrand, Driessen and Koll (2015) are among the scholars who advocate for a view that acknowledges the multiplicity of relationships of companies with different stakeholders and who call for more prosociety and proenvironment perspectives regarding the ways companies both relate to societal members and conduct their activities.…”