INFORMATION SHARING AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: A STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT VIEW

Purpose: The increasing competitiveness in market configuration is pushing companies to explore new ways to improve their competitive advantage and their chances of survival. According to managerial studies and empirical evidences offered by managerial literature, a possible strategy to improve companies’ performances requires the involvement of stakeholders as complex actors endowed with relevant resources and knowledge. Starting from this key point, the paper states that information sharing and communication strategies could offer an effective contribution to creating pre-conditions for stakeholder engagement. Design/Methodology: Reflections herein are verified via Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) on a sample of Italian companies with the aim of verifying whether there is a positive relationship among variables such as use of informal instruments of communication, publishing of social reports, number of years in which social reports are published, and availability of information on company and companies’ market capitalization (Market Cap). Reflections and empirical results are discussed from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. Findings: The paper enriches previous studies on the topic of communication strategies, offering evidences on the contribution that voluntary corporate disclosure can have in terms of impact on companies’ market value. Accordingly, the paper proposes first reflections on the possible role of information sharing and communication strategies as drivers in creating pre-conditions for stakeholder engagement. Originality: The paper proposes reflections and empirical evidences that offer opportunities to better understand the relevance of information sharing and communication strategies as drivers in creating pre-conditions for stakeholder engagement.