Title: Linking sustainability-related stakeholder feedback to corporate sustainability performance: an empirical analysis of stakeholder dialogues

Authors: Jacob Hörisch; Stefan Schaltegger; Sarah Elena Windolph

Addresses: Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany; Alanus University, Villestr. 3, 53347 Alfter, Germany ' Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany ' Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr. 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany

Abstract: Based on a dataset of large German companies, this paper investigates the link between corporate sustainability performance and sustainability-related feedback by stakeholders. In the analysis, no a priori link between sustainability performance and related stakeholder feedback can be observed. Using stakeholder theory as a theoretical underpinning, we therefore statistically investigate whether the application of stakeholder dialogues can help companies to link their sustainability performance to stakeholder feedback. We find that stakeholder dialogues indeed help to establish such a link, as companies which improve their sustainability performance and simultaneously communicate with stakeholders using stakeholder dialogues are most likely to experience a decrease in sustainability-related stakeholder criticism.

Keywords: sustainability management; stakeholder feedback; stakeholders; stakeholder criticism; stakeholder dialogue; stakeholder theory; corporate social responsibility; CSR; corporate sustainability; sustainability performance; business environment; Germany; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2015.069027

International Journal of Business Environment, 2015 Vol.7 No.2, pp.200 - 218

Received: 27 Nov 2014
Accepted: 14 Dec 2014

Published online: 24 Apr 2015 *

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