Stakeholder relationships and environmental outcomes in natural resource management: a systematic review of mechanisms and governance conditions

This systematic review synthesizes 62 empirical studies published between 1996 and 2025 to examine how organizational stakeholder relationships relate to environmental outcomes across emission reduction, resource efficiency, ecological governance, and natural resource stewardship. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, searches covered Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO Business Source Complete, and ProQuest Business Collection, with explicit coverage of environmental science, ecology, and sustainability subject areas. The natural resource-based view provides the primary theoretical anchor, complemented by environmental governance theory and the community-based resource management literature. Six mechanisms organize the evidence: environmental sensing and early warning, green supply chain co-development, regulatory co-evolution, community-based ecological stewardship, environmental legitimacy accumulation, and collective environmental action. Three boundary conditions qualify the evidence: the association between engagement depth and environmental performance is non-linear; cooperative supply chain programs without credible enforcement show no measurable environmental improvement; and stakeholder selection driven by economic salience may underweight communities most dependent on affected ecosystem services. The evidence base documents eco-efficiency more consistently than ecological effectiveness, since few included studies measure absolute ecological-system outcomes. Closing this gap is the central priority for future research.