During the last decades, the tourism industry has become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. The growth has in turn led to traditional marketing techniques such as branding being applied to places and destinations. The concept of destination branding is concerned with creating an image which positively can influence consumer’s choice of destinations. Conditions surrounding organizations working with destination branding, so called destination marketing organizations is very complex. This highlights a need for effective management, leading to managerial activities such as stakeholder management, partnership creation and brand architecture being key factors in destination branding success. The purpose of this study is consequently to investigate the antecedents of successful destination marketing focusing on stakeholder management, partnerships and brand architecture. Based on a literature review, three research questions were created. A case study has been carried out in the form of semi-structured interviews with destination marketing organization from three Swedish regions. This study reveals that stakeholders are vital for the destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and their businesses. Therefore they have a clear understanding of which groups and individuals are stakeholders to their brand. The focus lies on the primary stakeholders and the DMOs are taking a motivating and caring role of the stakeholders, treating them with respect and appreciation. Collaborating within partnerships constitutes a large part of the daily work of the regional DMO's activities, and is often based on a need or possibility of creating an activity or product to improve the destination brand. Important factors to consider when creating partnerships have been identified, as well as ingredients for a successful partnership and what DMOs are expecting from their partnerships in terms of outcomes. Finally this study concludes that the regional destination marketing organizations are not fully applying any classic brand architecture strategies. Instead they are adopting a mix of umbrella brand and endorsed brand with selective communication of the brands in the region where they choose which brand should be communicated depending on which customer group is being targeted.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that is growing increasingly important, with more and more companies acknowledging that they have an obligation to the environment in which they operate. We were interested in inquiring into why companies chose to do so, even though there are no laws that condition them to engage in CSR. One answer to this might be that companies use CSR as a way to distinguish themselves from the competition as well as to gain trust and goodwill from the stakeholders. When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, the question is no longer whether or not companies should engage in it, but how they can gain competitive advantage by doing so.   This study aims at providing a framework for possible ways of integrating CSR and branding, as well as different strategies for CSR-communication. We also tried to define how, and why, consumers respond to CSR-initiatives. We based our case study on the Swedish fashion brands Gina Tricot and Nudie Jeans, two companies that have both chosen to undertake CSR- and sustainability efforts. The study’s foundation lies on material from our conducted in-depth interviews and quantitative survey, as well as former studies on the subject. We sought to understand how and why companies engage in CSR-activities, how the two companies have chosen to incorporate CSR in their branding, how they communicate this both internally and externally, and finally how the CSR-efforts are perceived by the average consumer and influence their view of the brand. The theoretical framework relies on earlier studies and research regarding CSR, branding, different strategies for CSR-communication, as well as theories regarding how the consumers respond to CSR.   Our analysis highlights the way our chosen companies have underestimated the degree to which consumers want to learn about the companies’ CSR-efforts, as well as how they wish to be informed. The result from our survey implies that the consumers have an interest in learning about companies’ CSR-programs and that such efforts for the most part will be beneficial when it comes to the stakeholders’ view of the company.

It can be stated that performance measurement is the foundation of performance management in any construction organisation. Traditional financial performance measurement is not capable of capturing the true performance of an organisation. Thus the results of such financial performance measurement can not be used by managers to derive future performance in their organisations. The balanced scorecard (BSC) performance measurement approach used in other industries has been proposed for construction, as it takes into account critical wider perspectives. However, the construction BSC consists of four perspectives that are highly suitable for construction industry, namely business development, stakeholder management, process management, and innovation and learning. The primary objective of the research is to develop a balanced scorecard framework for construction contractors and measure performance of contractors using that framework. The results of the questionnaire s urvey carried out and follow-up interviews conducted among 34 senior managers in Melbourne revealed that the above performance measurement framework is appropriate to use in a contracting organisation. The respondents perceive that the process management perspective measurement is more desirable than others. The stakeholder management perspective received moderate rating, while business development and innovation and learning perspectives both received average importance rating by the respondents. An actual performance measurement carried out on seven contractors in Melbourne to illustrate the use of the BSC performance as a strategic performance management tool in construction reveals the following: 1. Contractors' current performance levels in regard to process management and business development are moderately high, while stakeholder management and innovation and learning performance are perceived to be average. The contractors also perceive that performance in regard to stakeholder management is of higher significance for their business success, and 2. Performance with regard to managing employees and launching knowledge management initiatives was found to be low, so there is much room for improvement. Human resource management (HRM) is managing employees to develop and utilise their full potential in alignment with organisational objectives. It is recommended that contractors have to introduce new strategies for HRM. The HRM strategies should focus on recruitment, training and development activities of employees. Apart from HRM, the knowledge management (KM) also needs attention. The KM can be stated as effective use of available resources to increase the level of learning and innovation in the organisation. To enhance performance of KM contractors have to conduct project reviews on completion of every project and document useful information. This would enable managers to discuss company-wide performance at management meetings and further scrutinise this information. Having separate Balanced Scorecards for HRM and KM is expected to bring enormous advantages for a contracting company.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is faced with the rapid rate of urban deterioration. With the unique and densely populated nature of the city, the road to urban revitalisation can be envisaged to be a long and painful one. The government is determined to expedite the urban renewal work by establishing of the Urban Renewal Authority in May 2001 to replace Land Development Corporation that was established in 1988 to tackle the issue. The new set up is to operate with more public accountability and transparency as demanded by the community at large. It is also commissioned with the task of completing 225 projects in the next 25 years involving an estimated cost of over A$75 billion. The government has also decided to make Hong Kong Special Administrative Region a truly sustainable city by incorporating both urban sustainability and quality in urban renewal. Thus, a re-thinking of the project management application to enhance urban renewal project implementation is necessary and is beneficial in terms of finance, public confidence and maintenance of the sustainable competitive advantage of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This research is therefore justified. The research question formulated is:How can the project management body of knowledge and practice be applied to enable effective and efficient implementation of urban renewal projects in Hong Kong SAR?.Investigation of the extant literature in chapter 2 identified gaps in the body of knowledge and practice of applying professional project management principles and practices to urban renewal projects. A project management application model was formulated with five research issues that need to be resolved before the research question could be answered. These five research issues covered:• project organisational structure• team structure• attributes of team members• stakeholder management• communication and information technology enablersThe five research issues considered were:• Research Issue 1: What are the effects of projectised type organisational structure with integrated and multidisciplinary teams, corporate communication team, social services teams and informal project management community for each targeted district on urban renewal projects implementation?• Research Issue 2: What are the effects of a headquarters organisational structure with formal project management community, project auditing team, project support group and functional specialist advisory group on supporting the projectised organisational structure for each targeted district?• Research Issue 3: What are the effects of a flattened hierarchical structure with team members possessing sustainability knowledge and project managerial leaders being generalising specialists on the project team performance?• Research Issue 4: What are the effects of involving stakeholders at the outset of and throughout the projects with partnering relationship and formation of district advisory committee/community on urban renewal project implementation? • Research Issue 5: What are the effects of adopting information technology enablers by establishing computerised project management information system interlinked to Web site accessible to the public on communication to stakeholders?The case study research methodology was adopted to answer each of the research issues. In depth studies of Urban Renewal Authority with functional departments as embedded subunits were designed. Less in-depth case studies were also conducted for overseas cases in developed countries like Australia, United State of America, United Kingdom, Singapore, Denmark, Austria, Ireland and Spain for cross-case analysis. A total of 13 personal interviews with different levels of staff were conducted for seven embedded sub-units in the Urban Renewal Authority case. Information was obtained from ten overseas cases from their Web site and also via e-mail correspondence with the appropriate staff in the organisations.The data obtained were then analysed to show the patterns of the results for each of the five research issues developed in the literature review and also for the new findings that were not planned from the literature review. The findings were then compared with the extant literature to identify the contributions that this research makes to understanding how the project management body of knowledge and practice can be applied to enable effective and efficient implementation of urban renewal projects in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The application model for effective and efficient implementation of urban renewal projects modified to take into account the resolution of the research issues and the new findings is subsequently concluded.This research has contributed to both the knowledge of project management and urban renewal. The project management body of knowledge may need to put more emphasis on aspects of sustainability, multi-disciplinary and integrated approach, team hierarchical structure, team member attributes, stakeholder involvement and information technology enablers. Government support in both policy and implementation levels are of paramount importance in urban renewal work and needs more attention and focus. This research also provides some suggestions on the practice and policy especially on change management for introducing the application model in the existing organisation and the need of new legislation to supplement the existing one, on which the operation of Urban Renewal Authority is based.Finally, suggestions for further research are presented. These include quantitative research to test the application model built, generalisation of the research to other places with different operating environments for both governmental and non-governmental organisations, strategy for urban renewal, attributes of top management for managing urban renewal organisation, and cultural risk in managing urban renewal projects.

This research introduces a framework for explaining why managing family members create a shared understanding of caring and being cared for with their nonfamily employees, called ‘Social Reciprocity'. Applying an embedded case study design, using grounded theory method, this research adds to the understanding of the social mechanisms of internal stakeholder management in family firms, which have been largely ignored. The emergent framework proposes that the ability of family members to build trusting relationships with employees, based on cognitive and affective trusts contributes to the creation of social reciprocity. Affective trust, in particular, has a direct and moderating role in the creation of social reciprocity on emotional and instrumental level. The moderating role of affective trust is considered a valuable finding; since it emphasizes the role of trust as a meta theoretical concept. The developed framework suggests that affective trust initiates a social learning process that leads to a positive attribution bias, i.e. an automatic positive attribution of managing family members' actions as being based in benevolence and genuine care. Furthermore, social learning in the form of trust network reproduction emerges as contributory to the diffusion of social reciprocity to lower hierarchical levels. Analysis of data demonstrates that employees with little direct interactions with managing family members develop trusted weak ties to managing family members, with similar levels of cognitive and affective trust. This finding is particularly valuable as it challenges traditional network theory, which argues for frequent personal interaction to be necessary in creating trust ties. This thesis contributes to theoretical and methodological knowledge in several ways. First, it advances understanding of the social dynamics and mechanisms of internal stakeholder engagement in and SME family firm context. Second, the developed framework demonstrates the importance that concepts form multiple disciplines such as psychology, social psychology and sociology have on the development of theories in management research. Third, trust network reproduction and upper network stability emerged as causal mechanisms of potentially meta theoretical value that may have applicability on a wider range of topics in management research. Lastly, this thesis demonstrates the value of grounded theory in developing theory in management research.

In recent years, the eThekwini region has experienced a deterioration in the service delivery of water by its municipalities. A review of available literature indicated that in the current era of managing for all stakeholders, effective stakeholder management was a key area of focus for service delivery improvement. Stakeholder management is context specific, therefore the purpose of this study was to identify and understand the characteristics of leaders required for effective stakeholder management in the eThekwini Water Sector. An exploratory, qualitative, embedded case study approach was adopted since this area of study has been relatively unexplored. A cross-sectional time horizon combined with purposive sampling was used to undertake 16 semi-structured interviews with senior managers within the eThekwini Water Sector, ensuring diversity in the knowledge and views obtained. This study has determined that effective stakeholder engagement entails ensuring that stakeholders are identified correctly, common goals amongst stakeholders are agreed upon, and all engagements and communication are documented and structured. This study further confirms the view that leaders within the eThekwini Water Sector have a wide variety of stakeholders to manage, and that one of the main characteristics required by leaders for effective stakeholder management is the ability to manage relationships. These findings are illustrated through the development of two conceptual frameworks which can be used by leaders in the eThekwini Water Sector to effectively manage stakeholders, as well as scholars for future research. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

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Yes / In recent years, there has been significant attention given to stakeholder management, which involves the intricate interaction between organisations and individuals, as well as diverse groups that can significantly affect or shape an organisation's decisions. While progress has been made, African countries are seen as the next promising frontier for progress and advancement. Nevertheless, there remains a lack of understanding of this concept, as the continent is undergoing remarkable economic growth. Entrepreneurs operating in such environments face intricate landscapes when it comes to stakeholder management. Consequently, understanding how stakeholders contribute to the growth of entrepreneurial ventures in Africa is crucial to promote sustainable and responsible business practices. This chapter presents insights that can stimulate future research on stakeholder management within the intricate and diverse African setting. The chapter conceptualises the relationship between stakeholders and entrepreneurship in Africa and shows how entrepreneurial firms navigate the challenges associated with weak institutional environments. / The full-text of this book chapter will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 7 Jun 2025.

Bakgrund och problem: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) är ett ramverk som beskriver företags sociala ansvar och engagemang. Vidare förknippas CSR även med stakeholder management som handlar om företags bemötande och balansering av sina intressenters intressen. Oenigheter i teoretiska definitioner av CSR tyder på att det empiriskt sett kan uppstå missförstånd kring ramverket. Carlsberg Sverige och Spendrups är två företag som tar ställning och socialt ansvar via CSR men kritiseras trots detta på grund av sin produktion och försäljningen av flaskvatten, som även visat sig har en negativ påverkan på företagens försäljning. Detta tyder på att det kan vara av företagens intresse att vilja bemöta och åtgärda de kritiska aspekter vilket görs utifrån CSR. Syfte: Studien syftar till att teoretiskt och empiriskt undersöka förhållandet mellan två bryggerier och dess kritikyttrande intressenter, vilket bidrar till ökad kunskap om komplexiteten av ramverken Corporate Social Responsibility och stakeholder management. Metod: En kvalitativ metod har använts där studien baseras på sekundärkällor för undersökningen av de två fallföretagen Carlsberg Sverige och Spendrups samt en undersökning av kritiken som riktas mot flaskvatten och dess produktion. Analys och slutsats: Produktionen, transporterna samt materialåtervinning och –förbränning kritiseras för att ha en negativ påverkan på miljön. Vidare jämför kritiker flaskvattnet med kranvatten som förhållandevis är ett sparsammare alternativ. Carlsberg Sverige och Spendrups är aktiva inom CSR och studien visar att företagen bemöter kritiken genom att påpeka konkreta åtgärder, projekt samt mål för exempelvis minskat koldioxidutsläpp. Författarna drar slutsatsen att, sett ur ett större perspektiv, talar de båda sidorna förbi varandra. Kritiker anser flaskvatten vara en onödig produkt vilket innebär att det inte är en önskvärd produkt på marknaden. Företagen å andra sidan sätter produkten samt dess påverkan på miljön i andra sammanhang där flaskvattnet visar sig vara mindre harmfullt. Vidare kan företagen inte bemöta kritikerna till hundra procent då detta skulle innebära att de inte tillgodoser andra intressenter som efterfrågar produkten. Utifrån ett stakeholder managment-perspektiv gäller det för företagen att hitta en balans mellan intressenterna. Detta resulterar i synen på CSR som ett verktyg snarare lämpat för generella än specifika ändamål. Med det i åtanke underlättas undvikandet av snäv kritik då denna inte behöver eller kan bemötas direkt. Företaget kan således prioritera sin egennytta. / Background and problem: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a framework which describes a companies social obligations and commitment. Further CSR is usually mentioned alongside another framework which is stakeholder management which in term promotes the idea that one has to balance every stakeholder’s interest. Disagreement regarding a definition of CSR can result in practical misunderstandings concerning the usage of the framework. Carlsberg Sverige and Spendrups are two companies that engage in CSR but are nonetheless criticized for their production and distribution of bottled water. This critique has resulted in diminished sales for both companies and can give the corporations a real reason for trying to meet and tackle the open critique, which has its origin in CSR. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to theoretically/empirically describe and explain the interaction between two breweries and their critical stakeholders. This will contribute to further knowledge regarding the complexity of the frameworks Corporate Social Responsibility and stakeholder management. Method: A qualitative method was used on secondary information of our case study corporations; Carlsberg Sverige and Spendrups. The same was undertaken with those critical towards bottled water in Sweden. Analysis and conclusion: The production process, transportation and the recycling process have all because of their negative impact on the environment been subject to criticism. Further there are those that compare bottled water to tapped water which is a more environmentally friendly and more economical reasonable alternative. This study is concerned with Carlsberg Sverige and Spendrups’ work within the CSR areas. It has shown that the corporations try to meet (fulfill) the requests of their critics largely by for instance mentioning specific actions/measures they have taken, future projects and goals concerning carbondioxid emission. The authors draw the conclusion that, when observing the whole situation, one can see that the two parties are not speaking from the same perspective. Critics of bottled water view it as an unnecessary product which in term means that they want it off the market. The corporations on the other hand see it from another perspective which in their eyes shows how environmentally friendly bottled water actually is compared to other beverages and/or food. Further it is not possible for the corporations to fully meet the critic’s requests because that would result in a direct conflict with other stakeholders. The stakeholder management framework emphasizes the need to balance the interests of all stakeholders. Trying to balance all stakeholders’ interests’ results in that CSR becomes a tool which suits a more general than specific purpose. This however may prove to be of an advantage for the corporations because it gives them the opportunity to avoid harmful critic and lets them focus on what is best for the company.

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