This research aims to add some understanding to the existing stakeholder management literature with a focus on the management of stakeholder communication. It explores how the Web can assist the management of the communication between a dairy co-operative and its farmer supplier-shareholders. An exploratory case study and semi-structured in-depth interview research design is used to collect, analyse, and present the perceptions of interview participants. This research highlights a paradox, which results from the inconsistent needs of the farmers as both suppliers and shareholders of the co-operative. A number of factors that have influenced farmer interviewees' decisions to either reject or embrace the Web are also identified. These factors are divided into two categories, those closely associated with individual characteristics, namely, perceived values, perceived self-efficacy, and awareness; and these outside the individual's control, namely, infrastructure and media conflict. These findings suggest that the Web adds flexibility to organisations' stakeholder communication strategies by offering an additional communication form. In particular, this research shows that the Web contributes to overall management of stakeholder communication through 1) increased accessibility to personalised and up-to-date information, 2) added flexibility to self-service programs, and 3) a recreated sense of 'conventional' community. Furthermore, the Web should be used as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, conventional communication forms in stakeholder communication strategies. Although the Web may not be the answer for all stakeholder communication challenges; what seems undeniable is the tremendous potential of the Web in facilitating and leveraging the management of stakeholder communication. Three considerations are proposed for organisations planning to include the Web as part of their stakeholder communication strategy: organisational needs, stakeholder characteristics, and communication media factors. Research limitations are discussed, and recommendations for further study are outlined in the conclusion.

Bakgrund: År 1990 avreglerades den svenska livsmedelsmarknaden för att marknadsanpassasmot den europeiska. Sedan dess har antalet mjölkföretag sjunkit från 25 000mjölkföretag till strax över 4 000 företag. Under slutet av 2014 och början av 2015 haravräkningspriset varit väldigt låg, vilket påverkat mjölkföretagares ekonomiska situation.Varje mjölkföretagare tillhör ett mejeri, till vilket mjölkföretagaren levererar sinmjölk. Mejeriet beslutar vad mjölkföretagaren får betalt för sin vara. Eftersommjölkföretagaren endast har en vara, mjölk, vilken är svårt att differentiera, hamnarmjölkföretagare ofta i en olönsam situation. Syfte: Studien syftar till att förstå den svenska mjölkbranschens struktur och vilkaproblem mjölkföretagare uppfattar i den. Givet den uppfattade strukturproblematikenvill vi undersöka vilka möjligheter mjölkföretagare anser att de har för att påverka sinroll inom mjölkbranschen. Genomförande: Studien inleddes med att ta del av nyhetspress och facklitteratur angåendemjölkbranschen. Insamlandet av sekundärdata följdes upp med insamlande avprimärdata genom flertalet besök på mjölkföretag, enkätundersökningar, en fallstudiesamt en telefonintervju. Studien har ett abduktivt angreppssätt och således har teoriinhämtats parallellt med empirin. Vid insamlandet av empiri använde vi oss av bådekvalitativ och kvantitativ metod. Den kvalitativa informationen samlades in med hjälpav semistrukturerade respektive strukturerade intervjuer och observationer, medan denkvantitativa empirin samlades in med hjälp av surveyundersökningar. Slutsats: Svenska mjölkföretagare befinner sig idag i en svår situation. De lider av låglönsamhet och har svårt att i rådande branschstruktur påverka sin inkomst. Dåmjölkföretagare ofta har svårt att påverka sin verksamhet och samtidigt har en högarbetsbelastning är det möjligt att det kan påverka deras hälsa på ett negativt sätt. Vitror, likt många mjölkföretagare själva, att mjölkföretagare kan påverka sin situation ibranschstrukturen, men att det kräver mycket arbete. Vill mjölkföretagare påverka sinposition i branschen är det bra för dem att utveckla en tydlig strategi för sitt företag,något vi inte uppfattar att många mjölkföretagare har idag. / Background: In 1990, the Swedish food market was deregulated to be enforced with theEuropean food market. Since then, the number of dairy farms has dropped from roughly 25000 companies, to a little bit more than 4 000 companies. During the end of year 2014 andthe beginning of 2015 the price paid to dairy farmers by dairies has been extremely low,which has had an impact on the dairy farmers profitability. Each dairy farmer has one dairycompany affiliation, and it is the dairy companies who decide which price they will pay forthe milk that is produced. Because of the monotone production of dairy farmers, it isusually hard for them to differentiate their product and they often end up in an unprofitablesituation. Aim: This study aims to examine the dairy industry and the structural problems Swedishdairy farmers perceive within it. Given the perceived structural problems, we want toexamine the approach Swedish dairy farmers holds to the possibilities they considerthemselves to have, to influence their role within the dairy industry. Completion: The study begun by reading newspaper articles, specialist literature and othere-references regarding the dairy industry. The collecting of secondary data was followed upby collection of primary data through several visits by dairy farms, surveys, one case studyand one telephone interview. The study has an abductive approach, and therefore theory andempirical data were collected parallelly. During the collection we used both a qualitativeand a quantitative method. The quantitative information was collected by using semistructuredand structured interviews but also by doing observations. The quantitative datawere collected using surveys. Conclusion: Swedish dairy farmers are today in a severe situation. They suffer from lowprofitability, and it is hard for them to influence their income in the current dairy industrystructure. Because dairy farmers experience low control in their daily work, and at the sametime have a very high work strain, it is possible that it will affect their health in a negativeway. However, we believe that dairy farmers, like many of them selves, can influence theirposition in the dairy industry, even though a lot of work will be needed. If dairy farmerswould like to affect their position in the industry, it would be helpful for them to develop aclear strategy for their companies, something we do not percept that many Swedish dairycompanies have today.

Les systèmes d’élevage répondant aux principes de l’agroécologie doivent pouvoir s’adapter aux variations de leur environnement, en particulier parce qu’ils sont pensés pour maximiser l’utilisation des ressources locales et minimiser l’utilisation d’intrants. La composante animale des systèmes d’élevage peut dans ce contexte représenter un levier d’adaptation aux perturbations de l’environnement et contribuer à la pérennité des systèmes. Ainsi, produire des connaissances qui permettront de sélectionner des animaux robustes c’est-à-dire capables de se maintenir et de maintenir leurs performances dans un environnement changeant est actuellement un objectif prioritaire de la recherche en zootechnie. Peu de méthodes d’évaluation scientifique de la robustesse des animaux d’élevage ont été développées, et la seule méthode opérationnelle à ce jour, basée sur l’étude statique d’une seule fonction (l’approche norme de réaction) est remise en question. L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer un cadre d’évaluation opérationnel de la robustesse, c’est-à-dire utilisable en élevage. Dans ce but, nous nous sommes focalisés sur le modèle vache laitière et avons mené deux démarches complémentaires, l’une basée sur l’analyse de données issues de fermes expérimentales de l’INRA et visant à évaluer les aptitudes biologiques des vaches à gérer les compromis (trade-offs) entre fonctions biologiques (lactation, reproduction et survie) en environnement stable puis perturbé. La seconde démarche est basée sur des enquêtes auprès d’éleveurs laitiers en vue de caractériser les stratégies de conduite (objectifs et seuils de performances) qui relèvent de la recherche d’adéquation animal-système et contribue à la robustesse des animaux. Enfin un travail de synthèse a permis d’intégrer les contributions respectives des deux approches dans la conception du cadre d’évaluation de la robustesse, ceci afin qu’il puisse être manipulable par l’ensemble des acteurs de la recherche, du terrain et du développement. Ce cadre opérationnel propose que la robustesse des vaches laitières soit évaluée en confrontant les aptitudes biologiques des animaux exprimées dans un environnement donné, aux stratégies de conduite des éleveurs. Pour ce faire, il convient 1/ de caractériser les trajectoires productives des vaches laitières sur la base de l’expression des compromis entre fonctions biologiques en situation stable et perturbée, 2/ de les confronter aux objectifs et les seuils de performances des éleveurs, 3/ d’analyser l’adéquation entre les profils de performances exprimés par l’animal et les profils de priorisation des performances des éleveurs, 4/ de prendre en compte les complémentarités entre animaux pour passer au niveau troupeau. Des indicateurs de fitness des animaux (longévité, nombre de descendants dans le troupeau) permettent de valider cette analyse. / Agroecological livestock farming systems have to be able to adapt to environmental variability because they are designed to maximize the use of local resources and minimize the use of inputs. The animal component of livestock farming systems could represent a lever to adapt to environmental disturbances and contribute to systems durability. Thus, producing scientific knowledge allowing the selection of robust animals, able to maintain and maintain their performances in a fluctuating environment is one main stake for farming system research. Few methods have been developed to assess robustness in farm animals, and the only operational measurement (reaction norm) that relies only on the analysis of one function at a given time is currently turned into question. This thesis objective is to propose an operational assessment framework of robustness, that is to say, usable on the field. To that end, we focused on the dairy cow model and carried two complementary approaches, one based on the analysis of data collected from INRA experimental units, aiming at assessing biological aptitudes of dairy cows to manage trade-offs between function (lactation, reproduction and survival) in stable and disturbed environments. The second approach is based on data collected during interviews with dairy farmers in order to characterize their management strategies (objectives and performance thresholds) associated with the search of the animal-system balance contributing to animals’ robustness. Finally, a synthesis integrated the respective inputs of the two approaches in the assessment framework of robustness, in order to make it usable by actors from research, farms and development. This operational framework suggests that robustness of dairy cows should be assessed by comparing biological aptitudes of the animals expressed in a given environment, with the management strategies of farmers. It requires, 1/ to characterized productive trajectories of dairy cows including trade-offs between function in stable and disturbed environment, 2/ to compare them with performance objective and thresholds of farmers, 3/ to analyze the balance between the performances profiles expressed by the animal and the profiles of performances prioritization of farmers, 4/ account for complementarities between animals to step up to the herd level. Animals’ fitness indicators (longevity, number of descendants) are used to validate the analysis