Research Projects

The Institute for Strategic Management: Stakeholder View is currently working on the following briefly outlined research projects. Two short summaries of completed research projects follow.

ICT-based Stakeholder Management

Project duration: 2005 - 2008

How can firms identify strategically relevant stakeholders and systematically involve them into corporate activities?

The project aims at identifying strategically relevant stakeholders and at systematically involving them into corporate activities. To provide the relevant decision makers with a basis to identify organizational value creation through stakeholder relationships, the research project will develop the necessary tools and methods, particularly a set of indicators that help to make transparent progress in stakeholder management. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to further professionalize the tools and methods that are developed in this research. The research team is composed of researchers from three Universities of Applied Sciences: Zurich (S. Sachs, I. Perrin), Northwestern Switzerland (R. Schmitt), and Berne (A. Ninck). The project is supported by four companies that serve as case studies: Feller AG, Hunziker AG, Pfizer (Switzerland) AG and AEW Energie AG as well as the Commission for Technology and Innovation, a Swiss Federal Institution to support applied research.

For a German abstract on the project's outcomes click here (in German)

For an English abstract on the project's outcomes click here

The project report can be downloaded here (German only)

Here you can find descriptions of the four case studies:

• AEW Energie AG (coming soon)
• Feller AG (coming soon)
• Hunziker Partner AG
• Pfizer Switzerland AG

The following two academic publications are related to the research project:

Sachs, S., Groth, H., Schmitt, R. 2008. The Strategic Impact of Stakeholders' Perceptions: A Single Case Study From the Pharmaceutical Industry. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the International Association For Business and Society (IABS) in Tampere, Finland, and to be published in the conference proceedings. Download

Sachs, S., Schmitt, R., Perrin, I. 2008. Stakeholder Value Management System. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the International Association for Business and Society (IABS) in Tampere, Finland, and to be published in the conference proceedings. Download

Good Practices Stakeholder View

Project duration: 2003 - 2007

How and why do firms adopt a broad stakeholder orientation?

This question provides the basis of our comprehensive research project additionally funded by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (BBT/EDA), European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) and Forum Stakeholder View. We analyzed examples of good practices in six companies from the Swiss Telecommunication and Financial Services Industry and showed the development and implementation of the Stakeholder View as a strategic stakeholder management approach in practice. The project covers the scientific advancement as well as the usability of the developed concepts by the firms in practice and their ability to gain benefits and to reduce risks. After we  finalized our last case study in the Financial Services Industry and proceeded with an intra and inter-industry comparison of the findings in the two industries. The research team was composed of researchers from the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administrartion Zurich (HWZ) (Lead: S. Sachs, E. Rühli; Assistants: I. Perrin, V. Mittnacht, I. Kern, D. Käslin, T. Ruther).

Research questions:

• How and why did each of the companies in question adopt a broad stakeholder orientation? Which events triggered the development of a stakeholder orientation?
• What is the content of their stakeholder-oriented policies and practices? How is stakeholder management institutionalised? What are the core values upon which the stakeholder orientation is based?
• How are stakeholder policies and practices implemented? What have been the results (economic, social and ecological) of these policies and practices to date?

The questions set the basis of our comprehensive research project. We analyzed examples of good practices in six companies from the Swiss Telecommunication (Orange, Sunrise and Swisscom) and Financial Services Industry (Suva, Swiss Re and Zürcher Kantonalbank). The qualitative and comparative case studies show the development and implementation of the Stakeholder View as a strategic management approach in practice. The aim of the project is threefold: Firstly, good practices of stakeholder management are deducted to help firms gaining mutual benefits from and reducing risks in their stakeholder interactions. Secondly, the transfer from theory to practice is achieved by integrating the results and insights into the teaching and lecturing activities at the HWZ and the University of Zurich. Thirdly, we aim to advance the concept of the Stakeholder View and to contribute to scientific discussions in this research field by presenting our results at international conferences (e.g. Academy of Management, International Association for Business and Society, European Academy of Business in Society) and in papers published by renowned journals. The project started in 2003. We recently finished our last case study in the Financial Services Industry and we will now continue with the intra- and inter-industry comparisons of the findings in the two industries. The overall findings will be presented at our upcoming conference in June 2007 and lead to the publication of two books (practitioner focus in 2007; academic focus in 2008). The project is partly funded by the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS), as part of its Research, Education and Training Partnership Programme on Corporate Responsibility.