Stakeholder and public engagement

Exploration or exploitation? That’s the problem through the lenses of stakeholders

Angeloantonio Russo, Rosamartina Schena

In recent year, scholars and practitioners are dedicating increasing attention to the management of stakeholders. Starting from March’s (1991) contribution, we introduce a stakeholder domain of the exploitation and exploration strategies. As a result of in-depth analysis of the literature, we define new concepts of exploitative/explorative stakeholder orientation. Moreover, their balance allows firms to develop what we define as ambidextrous stakeholder orientation. Finally, we focus on a double stakeholder-orientation prospective, which refers to the ability of a firm to take advantage of simultaneously balancing exploration and exploitation across internal and external stakeholders, that we refer to as cross-boundary ambidextrous stakeholder orientation. As a consequence, the mediating effect of the above strategies is tested on the relationship between innovation strategies and firm performance. The empirical analysis relies on a sample of firms listed on Fortune 500 covering the years 2010-2018. Therefore, this study contributes to the theory responding to a twofold request: developing a dynamic approach to managing stakeholder; and studying the balance between exploitation and exploration as regards to firm performance.

#ambidexterity #exploitation #exploitative stakeholder orientation #exploration #explorative stakeholder orientation #stakeholder domain