Managing Stakeholder Tensions: A cross-sectional study at the intersection of stakeholder management and paradox theory

Abstract: Effective stakeholder management is an essential part of strategic management, and has been shown to provide various instrumental benefits to firms. However, the stakeholder literature falls short on approaches that manage tensions effectively. We respond to prominent researchers' requests to conduct research at the intersection of stakeholder management and paradox theory. Leveraging grounded theory, we identify six approaches to manage stakeholder tensions amongst high-tech, knowledge intensive start-ups in a cross-sectional study. We analyze these by leveraging theories from both research streams, and show that three of the six approaches correspond well with established paradox approaches. By categorizing the identified approaches into either-or, both-and, and more-than approaches, we conclude that the studied firms are mainly relying on the former two categories. Although none of the identified approaches were broadly used as more-than approaches, we shed light on examples amongst the case companies that fulfill the conditions of a more-than approach to manage stakeholder tensions. Drawing from paradox theory, we suggest that there may be large instrumental improvement potential in transitioning towards managing stakeholder tensions with more-than approaches.