Title: Stakeholders satisfaction and sustainable success

Authors: Luis Fonseca; Amílcar Ramos; Álvaro Rosa; Ana Cristina Braga; Paulo Sampaio

Addresses: Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP-IPP), Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal ' Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal ' Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal ' Universidade do Minho, Largo do Paço, 4704-553 Braga, Portugal ' Universidade do Minho, Largo do Paço, 4704-553 Braga, Portugal

Abstract: The relationship between stakeholders satisfaction and organisational sustainable growth and success is investigated focusing on the importance of a firm's relationships with critical stakeholders that may lead to better performance, as organisations while integrating business and societal considerations create value for their stakeholders. However, it is of most importance that top management actively leads this approach and that the governance bodies of the organisations support and check that this really happens. Framed on stakeholder theory and social responsibility theory an online survey was administered to managers of Portuguese organisations with certified management systems by a leading management systems certification Portuguese body. The findings suggest that competitive position is strongly correlated with shareholders, suppliers and partners, employees and customers satisfaction, legitimating Freeman's stakeholder theory. In an overall final remark, the importance of shareholders, partners/suppliers, employees and customers satisfaction for organisational sustainable success is highlighted in this study results.

Keywords: stakeholder satisfaction; stakeholder theory; organisational success; sustainable growth; sustainability; certified management systems; Portugal; top management; corporate governance; corporate social responsibility; CSR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2016.078899

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2016 Vol.24 No.2, pp.144 - 157

Received: 26 Dec 2014
Accepted: 10 Jan 2015

Published online: 05 Sep 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article