When Stakeholder Engagement and Governance is Front and Center

Strategy research is increasingly moving beyond shareholder-centric theoretical models to emphasize the participation of a wide range of stakeholders in the process of value creation. The acknowledgement of the importance of various stakeholders in the process of value creation calls for new thinking on (i) the role of different stakeholders in a firm’s fundamental function of creation and distribution of economic value and, implicitly, in the firm’s strategic behavior, and (ii) the role of stakeholder engagement and governance processes that underpin the identification of stakeholder interests and their enfranchisement. In this symposium, we propose to engage in con-versations that cut across work in strategic management, stakeholder theory, corporate govern-ance, and social issues in management to advance further research on these important topics. The symposium will consist of four paper presentations and a question-and-answer session with the audience. The ensuing discussion is envisioned to help advance both conceptual and empirical work on stakeholder engagement and governance. We hope to also highlight promising areas for further research that leverages both novel approaches to theory and explores new empirical set-tings.