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Business Climate Change Engagement: Stakeholder Collaboration in Multi-stakeholder Networks

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Stakeholder Engagement: Clinical Research Cases

Part of the book series: Issues in Business Ethics ((IBET,volume 46))

Abstract

This article focuses on sustainability management and climate change engagement through stakeholder collaboration. Addressing climate change requires collaboration among various stakeholders from businesses, governments, and civil society. This article examines a multi-stakeholder network aiming to generate innovative approaches to climate change. The life cycle model of multi-stakeholder networks is utilized to examine how stakeholder collaboration is used to define and plan for climate change engagement in business organizations. The findings suggest that informal and open-ended networks provide significant benefits by fostering learning and innovation when striving to address complex sustainability issues. This article concludes that because sustainability management is a delicate issue, an open-ended network may serve not only to reveal and enhance the particular sustainability interest of different participants but also to create joint interest. In turn, this may promote engagement with complex sustainability issues and sustainable value creation to all involved stakeholders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA (Elinkeinoelämän valtuuskunta in Finnish) is a policy and pro-market think tank. EVA’s aim is to identify and evaluate trends that are important to Finnish companies and for the long-term success of the society as a whole (www.eva.fi/en/).

  2. 2.

    The word “peloton,” originating from French, means the main group of cyclists in a bicycle race. This main group saves energy by riding close to each other. In addition, a literal translation of the word “peloton” to Finnish is “fearless.” Gyro Gearloose’s Finnish name is Pelle Peloton, and hence the name of the project refers to Gyro Gearloose as a fearless inventor of new things.

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for the financial support provided by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, University of Tampere, FI-33014, Tampere, Finland

    Anna Heikkinen

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  1. Anna Heikkinen
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Correspondence to Anna Heikkinen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    R. Edward Freeman

  2. Faculty of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Johanna Kujala

  3. Institute for Strategic Management: Stakeholder View, HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Sybille Sachs

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Heikkinen, A. (2017). Business Climate Change Engagement: Stakeholder Collaboration in Multi-stakeholder Networks. In: Freeman, R., Kujala, J., Sachs, S. (eds) Stakeholder Engagement: Clinical Research Cases. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62785-4_11

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