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5 - Stakeholder Engagement

from Part II - Ethics and Sustainability in Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Conduct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2025

By
Monika Marcinkowska
Edited by
Kern Alexander ,
Matteo Gargantini  and
Michele Siri
Kern Alexander
Affiliation:
University of Zurich
Matteo Gargantini
Affiliation:
University of Genoa
Michele Siri
Affiliation:
University of Genoa
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Summary

The chapter explains the importance of stakeholder relations in supporting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, focussing on the essence of stakeholder engagement management in financial firms, for in their case, relational capital is of particular importance, given the importance of mutual trust between an entity and its stakeholders. We begin by explaining the concept of interest groups, linked to contract theory and corporate social responsibility. Both the micro context (corporate stakeholder theory) and the macro context (the concept of stakeholder capitalism) are pointed out. Contemporary corporate governance codes emphasise a company’s accountability to a wide range of its stakeholders, which is especially important in the case of financial firms – due to the specific nature of their activities. Therefore, different dimensions of financial institutions’ responsibilities are discussed, stressing those aspects that justify strengthening stakeholder relationship management in those firms. The chapter emphasises the process of managing relationships with stakeholders. The core part is a discussion of the key stages of stakeholder engagement management: from the identification of main interest groups, their analysis and segmentation, prioritisation of stakeholders, and selection of an engagement strategy, to monitoring and evaluation of engagement.

Keywords

stakeholder engagementstakeholder theorycorporate social responsibilityfirm’s responsibilityrelational capitalstakeholder engagementsocial accounting
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of EU Sustainable Finance
Regulation, Supervision and Governance
 , pp. 103 - 133
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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