Translation of trustworthiness signals into factors for stakeholder value cocreation

• Published date: 01 August 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1685
• Date: 01 August 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER

Translation of trustworthiness signals into factors for

stakeholder value cocreation

Marcelo P. Castro‐Martinez |Paul R. Jackson

Alliance Manchester Business School,

University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Correspondence

Marcelo P. Castro‐Martinez, Alliance

Manchester Business School, University of

Manchester, Booth St E, Manchester M13

9SS, UK.

Email: marcelo.castro@postgrad.manchester.

ac.uk

In this empirical paper, we contribute to this special issue on “The Marketing and Public Affairs of

Sustainability”by addressing value creation, the raison d'être for the marketing scholarship, from a

social sustainability perspective. Our evidence shows that during the interlinked practices of a

focal organization and its external stakeholders,the practices from the former emit trustworthiness

signals which translate into factors for stakeholder value for the latter, as precursor to stakeholder

value cocreation or value destruction. Therefore, utility is not the result of an organization's

decision‐making and actions but rather, it is shaped by these interlinked practices, moderated by

each stakeholder group's dynamic reference state. We believe that our explanatory model,

by showing that trustworthiness and stakeholder engagement are endogenous to value creation,

is consistent with the view of corporate sustainability as a persuasive and effective organizational

management idea.

1|INTRODUCTION

Mahon, Heugens, and McGowan (2016) convincingly argued that a

path to improve long term strategic planning and positioning is to

better understand the “inextricably intertwined”(p. 8) relationship

between issues management and stakeholder management and called

for more research that recognizes their potential synergy.

We do so here by proposing a framework based on a novel

approach to stakeholder engagement or the “practices the organization

undertakes to involve stakeholders in a positive manner in organiza-

tional activities”(Greenwood, 2007, p. 315, italics added) as precursors

for stakeholder value cocreation (Lankoski, Craig Smith, & N. C. and

Van Wassenhove, L., 2016). We test our framework using empirical

evidence for how the practices of our focal organization, football's

(soccer) English Premier League (PL), emit trustworthiness signals (Dirks

& Ferrin, 2001) aimed at engaging the stakeholder groups who

codevelop and cofund its social action projects and how these signals

translate (Kjellberg & Helgesson, 2007) into factors for stakeholder

value (Harrison & Wicks, 2013). Therefore, the synergy between issues

management and stakeholder management is constructed and shaped

by interlinked practices among stakeholders that affect their direct

exchanges, the objectives they establish for themselves and others,

and the images of the synergy as it is produced (Kjellberg & Helgesson,

2007). This is a timely discussion for this journal because the Public

Affairs Council recently proposed that the recent rise of populism is

the result of a trustworthiness crisis (Impact, 2016).

This paper has important theoretical and practical implications

beyond this setting, particularly for commercial enterprises whose

income results from their global reach (e.g., technology companies

such as Facebook and Google). First, our approach fits the aims of this

special edition on the Marketing of Sustainability by addressing value

creation, the raison d'être for the marketing scholarship, from a social

sustainability perspective that goes beyond bio‐physical environmental

issues to include how stakeholders “interpret, and incorporate con-

cerns about, the places in which they live and the world around them”

(Vallance, Perkins, & Dixon, 2011, p. 347). We do so by presenting

empirical evidence for how translations, the linkages between the

practices of the PL and its stakeholders, shape utility rather than it

being the “result of corporate decisions and actions (Lankoski et al.,

2016, p. 228, italics added). Second, our framework complements the

strategic framework from Mahon et al. (2016) by offering a “closer to

the ground,”tactical level way for practitioners to map stakeholder

practices in order to construct strategic outcomes. Lastly, our empirical

evidence shows how based on the stakeholder group's reference state

(Lankoski et al., 2016), these translations either align the behavior

among stakeholders resulting in value cocreation (Vargo & Lusch,

2004) or signal unfairness resulting in value destruction.

The rest of the paper is divided in six sections. In the next section,

we briefly discuss our research setting. This is followed by our concep-

tual framework and by a section on methodology. From there on, we

present our results followed by a discussion of findings. We conclude

by presenting research limitations and opportunities for future research.

Received: 30 December 2016 Revised: 14 September 2017 Accepted: 27 September 2017

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1685

J Public Affairs. 2018;18:e1685.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1685

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of11