Resumo

Twenty years ago, Timothy Rowley contrasted this bilateral relationship, firm-stakeholder, in his article published in 1997 by the Academy of Management Review. He proposed the improvement of the bilateral concept, called a dyadic tie, to a network approach, where stakeholders are also interconnected. By adding concepts from network analysis, he also proposed that stakeholders have prominence in the flow of information that circulates in the network.

This paper employs a mixed method of bibliometric research and content analysis to identify, aggregate, summarize, and analyze the scientific development of the Network Theory of Stakeholder, a specific aspect of the stakeholder theory. The former method addresses a quantitative perspective of the available literature while the latter aims to qualitatively examine the prominent papers on the topic.

The relationships among organizations, groups, or individuals are much more complex and therefore difficult to be adequately explained in a simplified way Thus, assuming that stakeholders do not have an interrelationship is an idea that does not find any support. There is a dynamic interaction among stakeholder groups and those groups with organizations.

According to Zupic & Čater (2015, p.430) “Bibliometric methods allow researchers to base their findings on aggregated bibliographic data produced by other scientists working in the field who express their opinions through citation, collaboration, and writing. When these data are aggregated and analyzed, insights into the field’s structure, social networks, and topical interests can be put forward.”

The motivation for these stakeholders to work together is the need to solve a complex issue, which without the participation of these actors it is unlikely to provide a solution. The relationship between stakeholders is complicated and goes through several stages of development, ranging from skepticism, hostility, agreement and even collaboration.

With this paper, we presented the most influential papers on the Network Theory of Stakeholders, some concepts they share, and following developments of their works. The paper of Rowley (1997) has proved to be a seminal work in this theory and our content analysis found four prominent arguments in the following most relevant papers, namely the organization focus, the stakeholder relationship, the stakeholder network, and the issued focus.

Rowley, T. J. (1997b). Moving beyond Dyadic Ties: A Network Theory of Stakeholder Influences. The Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 887. http://doi.org/10.2307/259248 Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Indianapolis: Pitman. Hillebrand, B., Driessen, P. H., & Koll, O. (2015). Stakeholder marketing: theoretical foundations and required capabilities. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(4), 411–428. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-015-0424-y