Abstract
It is increasingly recognised that if businesses want to be successful in the long term they must address the legitimate needs and expectations of their stakeholders. Until recently, however, processes for involving stakeholders in discussions about environmental and social issues have mainly been used within the public sector; their application within the corporate sector is relatively novel. This portfolio develops a four-stage stakeholder consultation process specifically for use within companies and explores its implementation in practice within Nokia, the leading world supplier of mobile phones. Nokia is well known for its commitment to good environmental performance and social responsibility. The company already recognises that stakeholder opinions provide useful input to shape company developments. To date, however, no systematic process of stakeholder consultation had been conducted. This project was carried out to fill this gap, by using focus groups to explore the attitudes of employees and consumers towards Nokia, the environment and corporate responsibility. A total of 23 focus groups were conducted across the UK, Finland, China, Brazil and the USA. Key findings from the focus groups highlight that Nokia is widely seen as a responsible company; respondents focus upon local environmental issues; social and environmental issues are often inextricable; and, relatively small local initiatives can send powerful messages about the company’s overall approach. The research confirms that if the process is well-managed and companies are committed to taking the findings on board, consultative participation provides a useful tool to identify areas of high company performance and opportunities for improvement, promote procedural fairness in decision making and increase self awareness with respect to sustainable development. If stakeholder participation processes are to be undertaken by companies in a ‘sustainable’ manner, they must deliver clear and substantive benefits. Future research should therefore focus on developing participation processes that maximise the possibility of realising potential benefits and evaluative techniques to measure their effectiveness.