Laura Corazza – författare

Drawing back on the ever-evolving stakeholder management theory, this book responds to calls for more empirical research into the managerial sense making of the stakeholder concept.

The book explores how managers make sense of stakeholder management, especially in complex and challenging business contexts. Therefore, this book contributes to the advancement of the managerial branch of the stakeholder management theory focussing on managers’ sense making intended as how they interpret and understand social interactions.

With this book, the authors offer a contribution grounded on the what, why, when, who and how of stakeholder management, which are questions that still arouse considerable interest not only between academics, but also among practitioners.

Drawing back on the ever-evolving stakeholder management theory, this book responds to calls for more empirical research into the managerial sense making of the stakeholder concept.

The book explores how managers make sense of stakeholder management, especially in complex and challenging business contexts. Therefore, this book contributes to the advancement of the managerial branch of the stakeholder management theory focussing on managers’ sense making intended as how they interpret and understand social interactions.

With this book, the authors offer a contribution grounded on the what, why, when, who and how of stakeholder management, which are questions that still arouse considerable interest not only between academics, but also among practitioners.

This book analyses the seminal role of megaprojects for sustainable development, and the related, complex challenges they bring. It provides insights into the growing social responsibilities that megaprojects have, not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also towards the multitude of stakeholders involved, whether directly or indirectly.

After an historical overview of the increasingly necessary links between sustainable infrastructure and megaprojects, the book builds on and applies stakeholder theory to stakeholder engagement and management in megaprojects. It also emphasizes the importance of building impact assessment frameworks that consider the unheard voices that are often passively sitting at the receiving end of a megaproject, as well as the local context where the megaproject is embedded.

The book then proceeds to analyse the case of a very contested transnational railway megaproject between Italy and France, the Turin-Lyon high-speed railway, which has been suffering from stakeholder and communication issues for over thirty years, as well as from notable managerial and legal differences in the two countries. In this way, the book informs both theory and practice and encourages scholarly interventions into wicked problems. It contains a comprehensive review of the academic literature on the sustainability, sustainability challenges, and sustainability reporting of megaprojects. Conceptual models, frameworks and future research opportunities are provided to clarify the empirical challenges and highlight the gaps and opportunities to be explored by researchers and practitioners in future.

The audience for the book is both academic researchers and practitioners in the field of megaprojects and more specifically, those dealing with managing transnational megaprojects. It also includes several topics that will be of interest to policy and decision-makers.

This book analyses the seminal role of megaprojects for sustainable development, and the related, complex challenges they bring. It provides insights into the growing social responsibilities that megaprojects have, not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also towards the multitude of stakeholders involved, whether directly or indirectly.

After an historical overview of the increasingly necessary links between sustainable infrastructure and megaprojects, the book builds on and applies stakeholder theory to stakeholder engagement and management in megaprojects. It also emphasizes the importance of building impact assessment frameworks that consider the unheard voices that are often passively sitting at the receiving end of a megaproject, as well as the local context where the megaproject is embedded.

The book then proceeds to analyse the case of a very contested transnational railway megaproject between Italy and France, the Turin-Lyon high-speed railway, which has been suffering from stakeholder and communication issues for over thirty years, as well as from notable managerial and legal differences in the two countries. In this way, the book informs both theory and practice and encourages scholarly interventions into wicked problems. It contains a comprehensive review of the academic literature on the sustainability, sustainability challenges, and sustainability reporting of megaprojects. Conceptual models, frameworks and future research opportunities are provided to clarify the empirical challenges and highlight the gaps and opportunities to be explored by researchers and practitioners in future.

The audience for the book is both academic researchers and practitioners in the field of megaprojects and more specifically, those dealing with managing transnational megaprojects. It also includes several topics that will be of interest to policy and decision-makers.

This book showcases the discussion about megaprojects carried out at the MeRIT (Megaproject Research Interdisciplinary Team) workshop 2023: the crisis, discontinuity, rising prices, and supply chains disruption force radical reflection for those involved in megaprojects. It raises a modern-day challenge, the creation of value for stakeholders. Indeed, the aim of the volume is to encourage readers to think more broadly, articulately and less stringently than the mainstream claims. There is a need to design, implement, and manage megaprojects by abandoning the old paradigm that leveraged solely on time and cost.  We need to move beyond that by going to explore the value generated, the positive impact on people, communities and territories. Economic, social and environmental sustainability takes on a new and broader articulation: issues of the circular economy applied to megaprojects are addressed and ample space is ensured for the inclusion of social needs in current practices.

The scientific, cultural and diplomatic relations between Europe and its partners in North America are very strong. From a scientific point of view, this long-standing cooperation has taken place across a wide range of areas. They include the field of sustainability, where North America and Europe are working hand in hand, seeking solutions to the many regional and global problems currently faced. Against this backdrop and in order to facilitate a broad discussion on the contribution of higher education institutions from both sides of the Atlantic towards a more sustainable future, this book is being produced.

The book gathers inputs from universities and research organizations on the one hand, but also from companies and enterprises on the other, from Europe and North America, working on matters related to sustainable development in a higher education context. It also provides a platform for the dissemination of information on the latest initiatives, paving the way for technology transfer and networking. Furthermore, the book intends to provide a fertile basis upon which European and North American organizations may cooperate more closely in this key area. Last but not least, a further aim of the book is to present methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case studies and projects, which aim to show how sustainability in North America and in Europe may be enhanced in practice.