Managing Conflicting Stakeholder Interests: An Exploratory Case Analysis of the Formulation of Corporate Social Responsibility Standards in the Netherlands

The formulation of corporate social responsibility standards must deal with conflicting interests among stakeholders. The standards formulation process occurs at the junction between market stakeholders and special interest groups, which implies that it may help increase understanding of the marketing–society relationship. Drawing on the power and urgency dimensions of stakeholder identification theory and decision process analysis, this study examines four case studies pertaining to animal welfare issues in food marketing. The standards formulation processes contain control mechanisms that solve the potential conflicts between stakeholders by constraining commercial and/or special interests. These mechanisms vary in the degree to which discussion centers on the relationship between commercial and special interests, the presence of new parties that may alter the negotiations, the stage at which special interest groups become involved in the process, and the extent to which commercial and special interests constrain each other. The findings have critical implications for how companies and their stakeholders can organize the process of formulating corporate social responsibility standards. Keywords: stakeholder marketing, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder identification theory, legitimacy, standards