Stakeholder Engagement: The Case of the Russian Largest Oil and Gas Companies

Abstract

The study aims to analyse the practice of stakeholder management in seven largest Russian oil and gas companies. The methodological basis includes the stakeholder concept, the concept of corporate social responsibility and the concept of corporate sustainability. The author verifies a number of hypothesis, such as active engagement with the first level stakeholders, especially the state; stakeholder engagement is implemented by a Department for Corporate Social Responsibility and(or) a Department for Sustainable Development; the higher the degree of a company’s transparency, the more the issues of stakeholder engagement are revealed. The research method is a case study of seven Russian oil and gas companies, which allows not only identifying internal processes of stakeholder engagement within these companies, but also conducting a comparative analysis of stakeholder management. The information base includes the companies’ official websites, annual and non-financial reports, as well as АА1000SES, GRI G4, GRI Standards. The author provides a definition of stakeholder management and discusses the companies’ key stakeholders and divisions engaging with stakeholders, engagement instruments, etc. The research results disprove the first and second hypotheses and confirm the third hypothesis. The paper proposes measures to enhance interaction with stakeholders of the companies examined.

Keywords

• CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• STAKEHOLDER
• STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
• STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
• MANAGEMENT INSTRUMENT
• MANAGEMENT STANDARD