Who Matters?! : External stakeholder analysis in projects

Abstract: Stakeholder management is a topic that has received increased attention in later years. Researchers have tried to answer the question of which stakeholders that really matters to organizations and developed ways for identifying and prioritizing among stakeholders. This thesis fills a void in academia by looking exclusively on external stakeholders in large and complex projects such as the construction of power plants. The thesis investigates the approach towards external stakeholders as well as the process of identifying and prioritizing external stakeholders in this specific setting. By using attributes identified in earlier research, a theoretical framework was created that was used to investigate two of Sweden’s largest companies through a qualitative case study. The thesis describe how stakeholder identification and prioritization occurs in the different case companies and ultimately contribute with a new model that can be used by managers to prioritize among external stakeholder in organizational projects.