Analysis of Intention and Practices of Collaboration with Stakeholders in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: Our objective was to analyze the intention and practice of collaboration of managers in Brazilian private companies regarding their stakeholders.

Method: In this research we aimed to analyze a sample of 149 Brazilian companies that have (or not) collaboration features with stakeholders. It is a quantitative research with the use of primary search data. Regarding the techniques, this research was conducted through an electronic survey platform and the measuring instrument was a questionnaire with closed questions, measured with a Likert scale, and forwarded to e-mail addresses of managers of the target companies.

Originality / Relevance: This study contributes to the Stakeholders Theory in a descriptive-empirical view, considering the study of collaboration of organizations and their stakeholders in private companies. These aspects are still little explored in the Brazilian literature of companies’ stakeholders.

Results: We observed that the real benefits of collaboration with stakeholders are still unclear in the context of Brazilian companies. Both consumers and shareholders are still perceived by managers as the most salient elements in the corporate social responsibility in Brazilian companies. Although, results also indicated that managers’ intention in the companies we studied is to contribute with their stakeholders as stated by Jones (1995) and Halal (2001).

Theoretical / methodological contributions: The main contribution of this study was to bring insights into the practices of managers in Brazilian companies on collaboration with stakeholders from international practices, subject especially studied by Halal (2001).