Multi-stakeholder governance encourages competitiveness

The purpose of this paper is to outline the ISO 26000 and the development of multi-stakeholder management as it has come to be applied in strategic management. Stakeholder engagement can be defined as interactive activities initiated by an organization with its stakeholders. One of the general CSR principles within ISO 26000 concerns respecting stakeholder interests. Brief discussion of managing for stakeholders and the role this plays in achieving value creation and competitive advantage are presented. ISO 26000 adds that the active engagement of stakeholders is based on trust and goes beyond public relations. Moreover, it is also important to realise that stakeholder engagement is not a one-off event but a continuous process. CSR in SMEs is less formal and more intuitive than in larger companies but that does not make it less valuable. The challenge is to get more SMEs to do more CSR. The fact that SMEs are an extremely diverse group (size, history, sector, ownership and so on) call for a range of different approaches and strategies to encourage the uptake of CSR. Furthermore, case the most innovative company in the EU (2010) and its multi-stakeholder governance, its sustainable corporate strategy as well as its reporting according ISO 26000 are presented. The research results show that multi-stakeholder governance is indicated and is implemented into corporate strategy but CSR reporting (according ISO 26000 guidelines, sustainable indicators) is still at an early stage.