Stakeholder Engagement: A Conceptual Framework and Initial Validation to Foster Sustainability Development in a Maritime Cluster

Sustainability development, as a concept, is becoming an important topic for discussion within the maritime industry due to its environmental impact and intensification of the compliance framework. Achieving sustainable development will require involvement from the industry diverse stakeholders. Yet the ongoing discussions and research studies on promoting sustainability within the maritime industry gave no attention to engaging the various stakeholders existing and/or operating within the industrial or professional cluster, whose absence from the decision-making processes may fail to address sustainability issues within the industry. This study argues in support of actively engaging the maritime industry diverse stakeholders to foster the implementation of sustainable development. Based on desk research and validation from subject experts, we propose a conceptual engagement framework that may be adopted by shipping entities to correctly identify and engage the industry key stakeholders towards promoting sustainable development.