Open AccessStakeholder Networks and Strategy: The Influence of Network Consistency and Network Diversity On Firm Performance
Author(s) -
Richard Peters,
Peggy A. Golden
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of business strategies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2162-6901
pISSN - 0887-2058
DOI - 10.54155/jbs.30.2.120-144
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , stakeholder , consistency (knowledge bases) , variety (cybernetics) , business , social network (sociolinguistics) , stakeholder management , reputation , marketing , knowledge management , industrial organization , computer science , economics , management , social science , artificial intelligence , sociology , world wide web , anthropology , social media
As academic and practitioners continue to demand greater stakeholder acknowledgementand engagement, firms must seek ways to move beyond dyadic interactionsand treat internal and external stakeholders as components of a holisticnetwork. This paper introduces two new constructs, Network Diversity and NetworkConsistency, proposing that both the variety of stakeholder partners (Network Diversity)as well as the uniformity of social performance across multiple stakeholderconstituencies (Network Consistency), will influence Corporate Reputation (CR)and ultimately, firm financial performance. Using a sample of 158 firms, across afive year time span,we find that while Network Diversity has no significant relationshipto CR, Network Consistency is in fact related to Corporate Reputation. Further,high levels of Network Diversity may actually detract from, rather than enhancefinancial performance, via increased cost and relationship management complexity.