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This chapter investigates the outcome of the ongoing interactions between the Danish University College of Northern Denmark and stakeholder networks in the Italian destination Campi Flegrei. The findings of this study show that the benefits of the interactions among students, lecturers, and destination stakeholders are manifold and show that the challenge resides in strengthening the flux of knowledge sent back to destination stakeholders. Thus, the authors suggest an action- and stakeholder-oriented approach for future knowledge transfer from the educational institution to the destination stakeholders.

The importance of organizational-stakeholder relationships has been an interesting subject in the organizational literature.

In this chapter, the evolution of the concept of stakeholder and how crucial is the company’s interaction and cooperation with them to achieve common goals has been studied. Initially stakeholder was considered a synonym of shareholder but throughout the years the category has expanded including managers, employees, suppliers, and other key actors, until the current meaning: stakeholder is “any group or individuals who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives” (Freeman, 1994). Hence for running successful businesses, the companies need to acknowledge the existing stakeholders and provide them expected benefits, proportionally to their relevance, which is based on their power, legitimacy, and urgency. The chapter concludes by showing us the main principles that identify the management duties to all stakeholders and the necessity of increasing their involvement in decision-making processes.

The objective of this final chapter is to summarise the entire study through an overview of each chapter, and provide an analysis of the limitations and areas of future research. Section 7.2 provides the summary, whereas Section 7.3 outlines some of the limitations of the study, including the model itself and its assumptions, the statistical measure utilised, and the problems with the survey including the response rate. Section 7.5 highlights the potential future areas of research within stakeholder theory.

The pursuit of sustainable development goals (SDGs) is the primary driver of road infrastructure development (RID), but multiple parties are involved in the process, causing confusion. To effectively manage stakeholder processes, Jeffry (2009) proposed a framework based on a preventative double-path relationship between stakeholders and institutions. Bal et al. (2013) proposed a five-stage framework for stakeholder management, which includes identifying key players and issues, conducting analysis and plans, tightening restraints on making promises, creating a plan and soliciting input from interested parties, and monitoring its effectiveness. Successful stakeholder management for sustainable road infrastructure project (SRIP) implementation has been shown to have several benefits, such as enhanced understanding of the fiscal position, improving status, building relationships, developing trust, and enduring collaborative relationships, distributing skills and practices, and recognizing and mitigating threats and vulnerabilities. Infrastructure projects involving roads include a range of complex activities, and it is essential for infrastructure projects to evaluate potential project partners prior to making a final decision. Dealing with many stakeholders and maintaining a reasonable degree of concordance between their interests is crucial for fruitful endeavours. It is important for project groups and partners to have a shared understanding of the project’s goals and solicit their input and for a precise approach to identify and manage project partners throughout the execution phase. However, RID is still in its infancy when it comes to managing stakeholders and relationships. Stakeholder management has been ad hoc due to a lack of standardized methodologies, approaches, strategies, and processes, and infrastructure development procedures should include a systematic approach to managing stakeholders. The bulk of SRIP implementation needs come from stakeholders, making project partners crucial. The sustainable development (SD) strategy emphasizes the importance of SRIP execution to stakeholders, such as architects, quantity surveyors, conservationists, environmentalists, regional managers, project managers, suppliers, subcontractors, and sustainability consultants. This section of the research addressed the omissions of previously analysed comprehensive factors in SID models and frameworks, including climate change response, public involvement, and stakeholder management. Strategies for filling these gaps were discussed. An analysis of relevant academic literature was conducted.

Disasters are occurring worldwide, and Sri Lanka has also become a victim of multiple disasters. Though there is a disaster management mechanism from the national level to the local level in Sri Lanka, several gaps are identified in pre- and postdisaster management activities. Among them, the responsibilities of local-level stakeholders in flood management activities are not performing at a satisfactory level. Therefore, the flood damage from the previous events was too great. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess the roles, responsibilities and performance of stakeholders involved in local-level flood risk management activities.

The Deduru Oya basin in Sri Lanka was selected as the study area. The study hypothesized that “ineffective roles, responsibilities and performance of local level stakeholders have weakened the flood risk management in the Deduru Oya basin.” The stratified random sampling method selected the sample (n = 425) from the flood-vulnerable population. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and field observations. Secondary data were collected from reports, work plans, journal papers and published maps. Descriptive data analysis methods and thematic data analysis methods were used in the study.

About 69% of the respondents state that they are not satisfied with the involvement of government agencies in local-level flood risk management activities, while 10% of the respondents state that they are satisfied. The thematic analysis reveals several gaps, such as the lack of reservations in the Deduru Oya, improper land use practices, no inundation areas are identified and mapped out and the effects of illegal sand mining in the Deduru Oya. In addition to that, the lack of legal power vested in local governments in disaster management and the weaknesses of current legislation on flood risk management are the other major courses of local-level ineffectiveness.

The current research was limited to studying the involvement of local-level stakeholders in flood risk management, but the involvement of subnational and national-level stakeholders should be studied in future research.

This paper examines the involvement of local-level stakeholders in flood risk management. The results of the study confirm that the roles and responsibilities of local-level stakeholders are not well-defined and mandated, and therefore, the performance of stakeholders involved is minimal. Therefore, the results highlight the need for a well-established community-based flood risk management mechanism.

This paper aims to examine the consistency between firms’ stakeholder-friendly responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings. Consistent firms are those with high prior ESG ratings that actively support stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis.

The authors use data from JUST Capital, which tracks Russell 1000 firms’ actions in response to the pandemic, to examine the relationship between pre-pandemic ESG ratings and their COVID responses towards employees, customers and communities. The authors also analyse the impact of firms’ consistency between pre-pandemic ESG ratings and stakeholder-friendly COVID responses on ESG ratings and stock returns.

This study finds that firms with higher pre-pandemic ESG ratings are more likely to support their stakeholders during the pandemic. The authors also find that firms with high ESG ratings before the pandemic experience a decline in their ESG ratings if they do not actively support their communities during the COVID-19 crisis, although insufficient employee/customer support does not impact their ESG ratings. Finally, the authors find that firms with higher pre-pandemic ESG ratings that continue to uphold their ESG commitments through community assistance during the pandemic achieve higher stock returns compared to inconsistent firms.

The results reveal gaps in how comprehensively ESG agencies assess firms’ crisis responses, highlighting areas for rating improvements. The findings contribute to sustainable development by revealing the importance of firms upholding their ESG commitments during crises to maintain stakeholder trust and drive long-term value creation.

The findings underscore the need for responsive, transparent ESG rating processes to support the integration of sustainability considerations into corporate practices and investment decisions, particularly during evolving societal expectations during crises.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate how pre-pandemic ESG ratings explain firms’ stakeholder-friendly responses during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyse the integration of these responses and pandemic risks into ESG ratings during the crisis.

There is an urgent need to translate climate change awareness into tangible climate adaptation strategies. The built environment is identified as one of the kick-off points in making climate change adaptation as the built environment shares a dual-way relationship. While the built environment largely contributes to the climate change-triggering factors, it also becomes highly vulnerable in the face of climate change impacts. Tied up with the interconnectedness of the built environment processes and associated systems, the involvement of numerous stakeholders from different spectrums creates the need for a holistic and multi-stakeholder approach in developing climate response strategies for the built environment. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the roles and responsibilities of the different built environment stakeholders in climate change adaptation.

The study consisted of a scoping review at the initial stage, contextualising studies based on secondary data, and semi-structured expert interviews in five different countries: the UK, Sweden, Malta, Spain and Sri Lanka. The paper summarises the findings of the individual country-level desk studies and 65 built environment stakeholder interviews representing national and local governments, communities, academia and research organisations, civil organisations, professional bodies and the private sector. The findings were validated through focus group discussions in two stakeholder seminars.

The findings summarised a set of key roles and sub-roles for each stakeholder category, considering the current status and needs. The national governments need to set a long-term vision, enabling multi-sector interventions while promoting investment and innovation in climate change adaptation. The local governments overlook local adaptation plans, while the community is responsible for decarbonising operations and practising adaptation at the local level. Civil organisations and professional bodies are the voice of the community, linking policy and practice. Academia and research are responsible for nurturing skills and new knowledge, and the private sector must contribute by adopting climate resilience into their business portfolio and corporate social responsibility.

This research is part of an Europe-Union-funded research project, Built Environment leArning for Climate Adaptation (BEACON), which aims to develop skills and competencies of the built environment professionals so that they will be adequately equipped to handle the adaptation process of the built environment needs to adapt in facing the climate change impacts.

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of the roles and responsibilities pertaining to each category of the different stakeholders in effectively adapting the built environment to withstand the climate change consequences. Demarcation of each stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities separately facilitates collaboration and coordination between the different parties and provides a more holistic approach to climate change adaptation in the built environment.

Understanding the stakeholders' role and interest are critical for implementing climate change policy. The dichotomy between adaptation and mitigation, which arguably creates uncertainty at the implementation level, for example, is shaped by the role of the actors involved. In this regard, this study aims to investigate the interests and role of stakeholders in climate change adaptation at the national and regional levels in Indonesia. The country, Indonesia, is selected because it produces the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and the people are at the highest risk of the impacts of climate change in the world. Furthermore, this study discusses the challenges in climate change adaptation in Indonesia.

This research uses a literature review and interviews with potential stakeholders. Purposive sampling methods were applied to select stakeholders for interviews. Interviews with key stakeholders were conducted through email and Zoom. Questions were developed based on the roles and interests of stakeholders.

According to the stakeholders, there is a need to establish links between climate change adaptation and local policy at the national and regional levels. The results reveal no integration strategy or approach to support climate change adaptation. Although there has been some climate change adaptation, few people are widely regarded as authorities on climate change policy. This study also discusses some challenges and opportunities to engage key stakeholders in Indonesia.

The study offers an understanding of stakeholders based on key stakeholders' interests and role in climate change adaptation in Indonesia. The research findings in this study generate prospects for the government or decision-makers or other stakeholders to deliberately aspire for policy planning. In addition, to prepare climate change adaptation policies relating to the role of stakeholders or community-based approaches to climate change adaptation, stakeholders can conduct more detailed studies to achieve community resilience in term of climate change adaptation.

This study aims to identify key built environment stakeholders in Sri Lanka and to understand their roles and responsibilities in tackling climate change. It also seeks to identify key challenges experienced by stakeholders.

Secondary data was systematically reviewed to identify key-built environment stakeholders in Sri Lanka. Thereafter, primary data was collected from a purposively selected sample of 40 built environment experts using a semi-structured interview schedule. The collected data was analyzed using the thematic analysis method.

The study identified built environment stakeholders in five sectors, namely, the state sector, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, academia and the general public. It was revealed that the state sector is responsible for policy formation and implementation, while the private sector acts as a financial facilitator. Academia generates and disseminates knowledge on climate change and community-based organizations provide inputs. Key skills and knowledge gaps of stakeholders include a lack of comprehension of the climate change theory and its concepts, lack of awareness on policies and legislation, lack of communication skills, language skills, digital proficiency and lack of integrated working skills. Unified action and equitable representation of all stakeholders is necessary to tackle climate change.

The original contribution of the paper is its emphasis on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to the built environment in relation to climate change adaptations alongside its identification of key knowledge gaps among stakeholders.