The influence of stakeholders-based management over innovation: a study in Brazilian organisations

Despite the importance of innovation as a source of economic growth, there are gaps concerning its development conditions. Focusing on this, we empirically test the relationship between innovation and stakeholder-based management. Using stakeholder theory, managing for stakeholders, and innovation literature to examine the question: if it is whether managing for stakeholders is positively related to the development of innovations. We examine 412 observations of Brazilian companies between 2008 and 2013 and use a longitudinal logistic model. Our results show that managing for stakeholders is positively related to the development of innovations, and this relationship is more robust if equality is considered when attending to stakeholder interests. More than 55% of the variance in the data derives from the differences between panel datasets. Therefore, our results suggest companies more concerned with stakeholders-based management have a higher probability of presenting innovation.