3 - Fabricio Stocker Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo - FEA - Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo - FEA USP
Reumo
Stakeholders’ theory has been gaining increased acceptance and relevance in the strategic management research and business practices. Still, only a limited number of studies in the field have focused on non-profit organizations or with social objectives, such as the case of higher education institutions (Ferrero-Ferrero et al., 2018). Some explanatory reasons for such a gap are: a possible low external pressure in the sector compared to private and highly competitive sectors as well as the limited number of sustainability reports published by these entities.
The purpose of the study is to propose and empirically verify whether the development of relationships with stakeholders based on the stakeholder theory principles creates more value for higher education organizations and its stakeholders
The theoretical background of this research is based on the managing for stakeholder approach, and the relationship between the principles of stakeholder theory and value creation. After presenting the theoretical review, we present the development of the hypotheses, which also emerge from the literature, and then are verified in the empirical context.
The methods comprise quantitative approach, applied by a survey with top managers of Higher Education Institutions in Brazil. 88 valid answers were considered. For tabulation of the data, SPSS ® statistical software was used. we used the exploratory factorial analysis, and in order to test the relevance of the factors we used Spearman's correlation coefficient.
The findings reinforce the arguments used by stakeholder strategy theorists, where the relationships based on knowledge and information sharing, mutual trust relationship, involvement in the decision making process and stakeholder alignment interests in the strategic planning process create more value for organizations and influence their competitive advantage.
This analysis improves our knowledge of stakeholder management in HEIs. It helps to identify which stakeholder relationships has more potential to create value and contribute to the sustainability and the competitive advantage of the organization. It helps to understand the dialogue with stakeholders and encourage the enhance the practices and strategies in the HEIs in order to make the company better for the stakeholders.
Ferrero-Ferrero, I., Fernández-Izquierdo, M. Á., Muñoz-Torres, M. J., &Bellés-Colomer, L. (2018). Stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting in higher education: An analysis of key internal stakeholders’ expectations. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 19(2), 313-336.
Garcia‐Castro, R., & Aguilera, R. V. (2015). Incremental value creation and appropriation in a world with multiple stakeholders. Strategic Management Journal, 36(1), 137-147.
Harrison, J. S., & Bosse, D. A. (2013). How much is too much? The limits to generous treatment of stakeholders.