A multilateral stakeholder salience approach: An extension of the stakeholder identification and salience framework

The stakeholder identification and salience framework of Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (MAW) has become one of the most important models of its type in the management and organizational literature. However, its underlying theory and associated empirical methodology have not incorporated previous research results concerning value creation stakeholder theory, which has gained increasing attention in recent years. In this paper, we introduce a modified multilateral stakeholder salience (MSS) model that extends the original salience framework both conceptually and empirically. We compare the results of the proposed MSS model with the original MAW model using data from European franchise firms. Overall, this study contributes to the ongoing debate about the theoretical foundation of stakeholder involvement in firms and networks.