Understanding the impacts of indirect stakeholder relationships : stakeholder value network analysis and its application to large engineering projects

In order to understand the strategic implications of indirect stakeholder relationships on large engineering projects, this research develops a qualitative/quantitative network approach, namely the Stakeholder Value Network analysis, to model the multiple relationships between stakeholders as value exchanges. With theoretical support from the Social Exchange Theory, this approach unifies both social and economic relationships into a common framework and also defines network statistics to effectively measure indirect stakeholder influence in a “Network” model as against a more traditional “Hub-and-Spoke” model. The usefulness of this approach and the strategic implications of these network statistics are then demonstrated by a retrospective case study for a large real-world engineering project, with improved understanding of relationships management for various stakeholders. The retrospective case is conducted on a multi-billion dollar, 5-year upgrade and turnaround of a major chemical processing plant for a Global 500 firm. In addition, we discuss the synergy between the Stakeholder Value Network approach and Strategic Issue Management, and outline a feasible plan to integrate these two approaches as an important extension of the original framework of the Stakeholder Value Network analysis