Relevance of Culture for Stakeholder Theory

Researchers who focus on strategic management and event management have used stakeholder theory to understand the relationships between a focal organization and its stakeholder. What has yet to be examined in depth, however, is the relevance of national culture on stakeholder theory. Further, still little is known about factors that facilitate or impede networking and alliance formation for and through events. The gaps identified in event management and stakeholder theory literature reflect a need for more research in examining stakeholder theory in different cultural contexts. The gaps also show a need to better understand the implications of stakeholder management and event management in different cultural settings. The main research objective of the study is therefore to re-examine the relationship and interactions between a sports event organization and its stakeholders in Chinese culture. By conducting an ethnography study on a sport marketing company in Taiwan, this study attempted to perform a cultural configuration on the Western-developed stakeholder theory.