Stakeholder identification

and classification: a
sustainability marketing
perspective

PRESENTER: TĂNG THÁI BÍCH

TOÀN
 ABSTRACTS
This paper aims to review the literature on
stakeholder identification and classification related
to sustainability marketing from 1998 to 2012 and
provides a generalized approach to stakeholder
identification and classification in the field of
sustainability marketing

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INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION
“stakeholder”

F
• Freeman (1984) introduced his important “stakeholder theory” and defined a
stakeholder as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the
achievement of a corporation’s purpose”Capitalize on low-hanging fruit to
identify a ballpark value
• a stakeholder can be a single person or a group, who can influence, or is
influenced by, the achievement of organizations’ goals and objectives.

“Sustainability”

• development that meets the needs of current generations without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 24).
• sustainability is considered as a development roadmap that can
save resources for future generations.
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 INTRODUCTION

F
• the subject of stakeholder marketing has been studied for
the past 40 years, research in the field of sustainability
marketing (in relation to stakeholders) has just begun
• some studies have advanced stakeholder theory by
addressing ecological, ethical and social dimensions,
although the broader area of sustainable development
has remained virtually untouched (Kolk and Pinkse,
2007; Laplume et al., 2008; Rueda-Manzanares et al.,
2008; Raghubir et al., 2010).
• there is a need to explore stakeholder theory in relation to
sustainability marketing efforts by organizations (Hult et
al., 2011)
• the present study reviews the literature on
stakeholder identification and classification in the
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area of sustainability marketing 5
 Key concepts
• Stakeholder identification and classification:
- stakeholder identification as the means by which to recognize key
stakeholders of the organization who affect, or are affected during,
the achievement of organizational objectives (Freeman, 1984)
- there are two types of stakeholder classification schemes: generic
and relative.

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 Key concepts
• Sustainability marketing
- According to Belz and Peattie (2009), “Sustainability marketing may be
defined as building and maintaining sustainable relationships with
customers, the social and the natural environment”.
- it includes all three dimensions: i.e. economic, social and environmental
(Elkington, 1998)

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Landmark studies on stakeholder
identification and classification
 Stakeholder identification and classification in sustainability
marketing

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 RESULTS AND FINDINGS

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 Further research
As previously mentioned, there are two options for carrying out
stakeholder identification in the field of sustainability marketing: first,
past literature can be used for identifying stakeholders; and second,
managers can be asked to identify key stakeholders. However, one cannot
ignore the fact that most past studies have relied on extant literature or
theories to identify stakeholders; therefore, to develop a standard
methodology, both approaches can be mixed to identify stakeholders in
future studies.

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 Further research
although many stakeholder classification schemes have been proposed
and utilized by researchers in sustainability marketing and strategy
literature, few are based on a generic classification of stakeholders.
Therefore, future studies could be based on generic classification
schemes. In the area of sustainability marketing and strategy, only a
single study, carried out by Clifton and Amran (2011), has discussed the
stakeholder identification and classification scheme outlined by Mitchell
et al. (1997)

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 Further research
The findings of the present study also reveal that researchers have used
different dimensions of sustainability in classifying and categorizing
stakeholders. However, none of the studies has used all dimensions of
sustainability together to identify and classify stakeholders; therefore,
future research can be based on classifying stakeholders on the basis of
all dimensions of sustainability, including economic, social and
environmental.

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Thank you