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Stakeholder management relates to how business organisations manage their relationships not only with their market stakeholders, but also with their nonmarket stakeholders. It requires firms and business managers to identify and develop effective strategies to balance the interests of many diverse groups or constituents. This requirement has of course been judged to be impractical by those who uphold narrow traditional views about how a firm operates; and is unsupported by those who believe that asking managers to focus on the interests or concerns of groups of constituents that do not directly contribute to the economic achievements or strategic objectives of a firm, is a distraction and an attempt to derail corporate objectives. However, in spite of the criticisms levelled against the notion of stakeholder management, firms can no longer ignore the fact that there are constituents who can affect, and are affected by their business objectives. The aim of this research is to illustrate the practical implications of stakeholder management by exploring how multinational oil corporations operating in the Nigerian oil and gas industry manage their relationships with nonmarket stakeholders; such as the local communities who are affected by their operations. In order to achieve the aims of this research, a case study approach has been adopted; the case study companies include Shell Petroleum Development Company (Shell), Total Exploration and Production (Total), and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (AGIP). Furthermore, to achieve a balanced perspective regarding the stakeholder management practices of the oil companies, the research incorporates the views of stakeholders from local communities, and those from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). A mixed methods research strategy is employed in the data collection and analysis process to achieve not just triangulation, but also to assist in the comprehension of the research findings. The research established that each of the companies being studied has employed different stakeholder management strategies in order to manage their relationships with the local communities. The strategies employed by the companies, however, appear not to address the issue of environmental impact; the concern which triggered the breakdown in the relationship between the oil companies and the local stakeholders in the first place. They have instead mostly focused on ameliorating the socio-economic issues resulting from oil exploration and production activities, in part as a consequence of pressure from the local communities themselves. Additionally, the findings indicate that the companies have employed hostile and controlling engagement strategies such as intimidation, appeasement, and manipulation, when dealing with local community stakeholders. These strategies are believed to have undermined the quality of their relationship with the local communities. The most notable consequence of these engagement practices is damaged trust amongst community members, as well as between the communities and the oil companies. The findings of this research have strong implications for stakeholder theory, as well as future research into stakeholder management practices, particularly in relation to non-contractual or nonmarket stakeholders; they also shed light on several important practical issues in business management.

Critics of the Olympic Games argue that rather than promoting the cherished values of Olympism, the Games have primarily been used as a means to leverage public funds to satisfy the economic interests of the elite, while typically returning to the community overdebtness of hosting the event, unusable post event facilities and negative impacts to accommodations and its resident’s standard of living (Andranovich, Burbank & Heying, 2001; Haxton, 1999; Hall, 2006; Hiller, 1990, Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006; Lenskyj 2003; Macintosh and Whitson, 1993). For Vancouver, host city of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, to overcome such criticisms the organizing committee must work with its stakeholders, those with a stake rather than stock in the Games, to ensure that social development benefits are maximized and negative impacts are mitigated. The city’s downtown eastside (DTES) has been singled out as the first area of focus by both the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and the Vancouver Agreement (VA), a public collaboration aimed at addressing the social issues that plague the area including business decline, unemployment, poverty, crime, and drug use (Ference & Weicker, 2002; Pivot, 2006; Vancouver Agreement, 2006). The 2010 Winter Games Inner-City Inclusive Commitment Statement (ICICS), adopted by VANOC and the VA, outlines the goal for an inclusive and socio–economic responsible Games. Understanding how each organization aims to use these Olympic Games to address the social development issues in the DTES was the primary focus of this study. Using stakeholder theory, the specific research questions included: 1) How do the focal organization (VA) and the stakeholders (VANOC) define the social development issue(s) underpinning their involvement in the ICICS? 2) How does VANOC see its role/interests in the VA and how does this compare with the VA’s view of VANOC’s role? 3) What factors are facilitating or constraining the sustainability of the relationship between the VA and VANOC? 4) What outcomes do the VA and VANOC hope to accomplish and how will these be assessed? This case study from September 2005 to February 2006, used multiple qualitative research methods including document analysis of organizational reports, policies and media releases and purposive sampling to conduct 8 ‘elite’ face to face interviews with administrators from VANOC, the 2010 Legacies Now Society, a non-profit society that works with community partners to develop social and economic opportunities surrounding the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, and those involved at the VA. The study revealed the primary goal between these three organizations is to use determine how to effectively use these Olympic Games as a catalyst to address the social issues affecting the DTES. While acknowledging that these social issues will by no means be fully addressed by the time the Games are hosted, they continue to focus on building their relationships and within the community in order to accelerate this social agenda. Factors found to facilitating their own relationship and with the community include: inter organizational dynamics, the Olympic Games sectoral tables, and VANOC’s Board of Directors. While administrators also identified factors constraining the relationship to include: managing working relationships with the community, government politics, and inter organizational challenges. / Education, Faculty of / Kinesiology, School of / Graduate

Background: Due to the commercialization of football, clubs have put more focus on management in general, and stakeholder management in particular. Despite this, research on stakeholder management in football is in its infancy. Therefore, little is known about how football clubs manage their stakeholders that also possess unique characteristics. Furthermore, these characteristics are more prevalent in Swedish football because of the ownership structure that allows the stakeholder to possess multiple roles at once. Thus, Swedish football was selected as the area to study, as the unique features of Swedish football provide interesting implications.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of stakeholder management in Swedish football. This study aims to understand the managerial implications that arise when managing stakeholders in Swedish football, how tensions are managed, and how to keep stakeholders satisfied.  Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative multiple case study approach was adopted since the nature of the study is exploratory. Through twelve semi-structured interviews, empirical data was gathered. This study adopted an inductive approach, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis.  Conclusion: This study has found that tensions are managed through the use of good communication tools, as well as the building of relationships. These relationships later affect the level of influence stakeholders have on the club. Furthermore, clubs keep their stakeholders satisfied by listening, being clear and transparent, having good values for the stakeholders to be proud of, as well as giving stakeholders a good return on their investment. These findings emerged into a suggested framework that displays the relationship between the different aspects of stakeholder management in football.

Stakeholder salience has emerged from the ambiguity of stakeholder theory and is intended to better describe the aspects of identification and prioritization of stakeholders. Despite the fact that 95% of businesses worldwide are SMEs and comprise 99.8% of all European enterprises, the stakeholder salience aspects of identification and prioritization, in relation to SMEs, are empirically underdeveloped and mainly focused on the owner/manager perspective. Therefore, this qualitative single-case study has explored the stakeholder salience aspects of identification and prioritization in order to better understand the intraorganizational perceptions of stakeholders, processes, and motivations, within a European SME. The findings revealed that intraorganizational perceptions focused on a narrow view of stakeholder identification, which contradicts the broad view advocated by researchers in relation to stakeholders and sustainable development. Furthermore, there is a need to develop broader intraorganizational understanding of stakeholders in terms of claims and processes if businesses are going to be able to create holistic strategies with a sustainable development focus.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF SARAH RUTH EPPLIN, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION, presented on September 3, 2015, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RTI) STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS IN THE SCHOOLS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Grant Miller Response to Intervention (RtI) was proposed as an alternative to the discrepancy model for identifying students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) in the reauthorization of IDEA, 2004. RtI requires stakeholders to significantly change how all students are taught. Accepting the changes accompanying educational reforms has been challenging for educators and RtI is no exception. To measure the beliefs and perceptions of stakeholders in Southern Illinois, a survey with a likert-type rating scale was conducted to gauge stakeholder perceptions of academic abilities and performance of students with disabilities, perceptions about data-based decision making, perceptions of the functions of core and supplemental instruction, and perceptions of practices. Analysis was then performed to determine whether significant differences existed among stakeholder groups in relationship to the aforementioned factors. Statistical significance was found in the area of perceptions about data-based decision making. Additional correlational analysis failed to find a relationship between factors and level of education or number of years experience in education. Results of this study suggest that beliefs and perceptions of current stakeholders in RtI are impacted by historical factors, understanding of data taking practices/interpretation, and a lived experience of many educational changes.