Stakeholder Marketing 2.0

As more companies pursue “open innovation” and adopt social networking and Web 2.0 tools, there is an emerging opportunity for them to connect with a diverse body of stakeholders and incorporate their interests and ideas. However, this also introduces many new challenges. The author identifies key properties that such networking mechanisms must satisfy if they are to succeed. He introduces a simple framework based on two dimensions of choices for designing such mechanisms: how the stakeholders are motivated to participate and how the company uses their inputs and makes decisions. For any choice, there are trade-offs to be considered. The author concludes by identifying the design that is most likely to succeed in fundamentally advancing the state-of-the-art of stakeholder marketing. Examples of many pioneering companies, such as Starbucks, Dell, Staples, Muji, and several others, are included in the discussion to illustrate the key propositions presented.