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This paper aims to analyze the requirements for stakeholder integration in sustainability project partnerships in times of sustainability crisis. Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic as a sustainability crisis that has sensitized consumers and other stakeholders to corporate responsibility for social and sustainability issues, a conceptual framework for stakeholder integration is developed from which implications for designing the potential, process and result quality are derived.

In this conceptual paper, design options for stakeholder integration are derived from open innovation and service management research. Specific crisis-related determinants of stakeholder integration are derived from current corporate social responsibility (CSR) and crisis research taking into account the opportunities and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design options and crisis-related determinants are then combined to a conceptual framework for stakeholder integration in sustainability project partnerships in times of crisis. Based on this framework, research propositions are derived that provide insights into the design of the potential, process and result quality of stakeholder integration.

This paper shows that the COVID-19 pandemic can be viewed as a sustainability crisis, which places special entrepreneurial demands on stakeholder integration in sustainability project partnerships. The pandemic offers potential for integrating a large number of stakeholders and has emphasized the need for integrating a broad range of stakeholders. Higher skepticism of stakeholders toward companies' CSR engagement in the pandemic has raised stakeholder demands for early integration. Higher skepticism and CSR involvement have rendered active forms of integration even more relevant, which, however, should still be adapted to the respective stakeholder prerequisites. The pandemic has increased the need for constant and comprehensive exchange of data on project results between stakeholders and the project leading organization. Measurement of target achievement can be promoted by establishing stakeholder commitment with regard to the target measures on the collective and relationship levels of the partnership. Finally, the pandemic has reinforced the need for more dialogical forms of communicating sustainability project results.

Solving problems and exploiting opportunities in times of crisis require a high degree of entrepreneurship and creative leadership in order to gain new ideas and overcome resource deficits. Sustainability project partnerships in which various stakeholders contribute resources and knowledge to collaborate on idea development and finding solutions to sustainability issues are suitable for this. However, previous approaches to stakeholder integration in open innovation and service management research largely neglect the crisis context and only a few are related to sustainability. In CSR and crisis research, stakeholder-related approaches to coping with crises tend to be underrepresented, and the comprehensive concept of stakeholder integration has so far hardly been considered as an approach to crisis management. By taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic as a sustainability crisis, this paper provides new impulses for the integration of stakeholders in sustainability project partnerships in times of crisis. Recommendations for the design of the potential, process and result quality are derived, which provide insights for project leaders and stakeholders alike. In addition, implications for public policymakers are derived, who are assigned an increasingly active role in the pandemic and who can contribute to the success of sustainability project partnerships by setting suitable framework conditions. The developed concept can be expanded to include further company-related determinants and offers a starting point for empirical analysis in the still underexplored research fields of sustainability-oriented relationship marketing and sustainability crises.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multidimensional corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis typology from the consumers’ perspective and to provide an agenda for future research.

Basic content-related dimensions for characterizing CSR crises from the consumers’ perspective are derived from a review of relevant static crisis typologies. Different types of consumer responses to negative CSR information are derived from various theoretical approaches. Dynamic process models of corporate crises are reviewed to assign various types of consumer responses to different crisis phases. Linking both static and dynamic approaches leads to a comprehensive consumer-oriented typology of CSR crises that is illustrated with examples.

A CSR crises typology is developed based on three consumer-related dimensions: the extent to which the company is attributed blame by consumers; the amount of perceived damage potential; and the perceived CSR relevance of the crisis situation. The combination of these dimensions results in eight different crisis types. For each of these crisis types, different forms of consumer responses are assigned that prevail in the so-called potential, latent and manifest crisis phase.

Future research could address the empirical review of the crisis typology presented, its refinement by considering various consumer and stakeholder segmentation approaches and the advanced dynamic analysis of CSR crises by including stakeholder characteristics that impact the diffusion of CSR-related negative publicity.

The results of this paper support early crisis detection and effective crisis management by identifying relevant target variables for crisis communication.

The typology developed enables a broad spectrum of CSR crises to be classified, including those that have been neglected in previous systematization approaches, such as CSR-related tensions, general sustainability crises and product-harm crises. Due to its theoretical foundation, this paper also contributes to a clearer demarcation of existing CSR crisis constructs.

Partnerships for sustainability involve the cooperation of several direct and indirect stakeholders. Direct stakeholders are project partners who can include sponsoring brands, manufacturers or retailers; and sponsored sports clubs or social institutions, and indirect stakeholders relate to potential customers, the general public and government agencies. The knowledge and competencies of direct and indirect stakeholders are integrated to ensure common project-based sustainability and individual goals. This integration is essentially facilitated by image transfer and self-identification effects, which strengthen stakeholder commitment and trust, and ultimately contributing to a higher relationship quality. However, sustainability partnerships experience several challenges. The challenges lie in selecting suitable partners; formulating partner requirements; determining partner contributions; evaluating and controlling partner integration and, further, enhancing cooperation and relationship quality among selected partners. To attend to these challenges requires a holistic and systematic process for stakeholder integration in sustainability projects. In this chapter, a process model for stakeholder integration for sustainability projects is developed based on the relevant theoretical and empirical research on relationship and sustainability marketing. In particular, the possibilities of digital integration are taken into account in the process. The model can be used to manage co-creation partnerships for sustainability including the selection, evaluation and controlling of stakeholder relationships to derive strategies and measures to improve relationship quality.

The purpose of this paper is to present the current empirical research examining communication, compensation and logistics as elements of product crises management in retailing.

The advantages and disadvantages of these three elements of crises response strategies are juxtaposed drawing on relevant empirical research. For each element of crises response the major findings of research are summarized and shown how it relates to crisis management. Needs for further research that would be necessary to solidify recommendations to retail managers are derived.

The investigation finds that both communicative and compensatory response elements as well as the retailer's logistics can positively influence evaluations of customers directly and indirectly affected by product problems thus enhancing brand equity. This in turn will serve to increase consumers' trust in the retailer that could win him new customers and generally benefit his reputation.

Most of the discussed research rests on the assumption of a given (extraneous) crisis response strategy of the manufacturer. Potential problems concerning the co‐ordination or implementation of manufacturer and retailer strategies remain open to question. Additionally, further research should examine which strategies are appropriate to which crisis situation.

Materially, over‐compensating customers often has a detrimental effect on solving the crisis. The impact of different compensation types on crisis resolution mostly depends on their respective signalling capabilities, the product problem constituting the crisis and consumer attributions. The use and the effects of a communicative crisis response largely depend on moderating factors such as the retailer's reputation or the existence of strong retail brands and consumer expectations. Elements of logistics seem to support the effects of communication and compensation on crisis resolution but are hardly capable of solving a product‐harm crisis.

The role of retailers in product‐harm crisis management has been widely neglected in research although such crises are predominant. This paper outlines the current empirical work on how different crises response elements may contribute to solving a product‐harm crisis for retailers. It derives relevant avenues for further research as well as useful insights to practitioners considering to using such response elements in their own crisis management strategy.

This paper analyzes the standpoint of Albert O. Hirschman in the structuralist–monetarist debate that took place in Latin America during the 1950s and 1960s. It claims that Hirschman had many affinities with the structuralist approach, in virtue of his methodological stance and of his view of the role to be performed by economic advisers in foreign countries. Similar to the structuralists, Hirschman did not make the control of inflation a central tenet of his development theory; also like them, he dissented from the orthodox approach. However, Hirschman did not take a clear-cut side on the debate, choosing, instead, to act as a go-between.

Digital transformation (DT) is a major challenge for incumbent organisations, as research on this phenomenon has revealed a high failure rate. Given this consideration, this paper reviews the literature on DT in incumbent organisations to identify the main themes and research directions to be undertaken.

The authors adopt a systematic literature review (SLR) and computational literature review (CLR) employing a machine learning algorithm for topic modelling (LDA) to surface the themes discussed in 103 peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2022 in a multidisciplinary article sample.

The authors identify and discuss the five main themes emerging from the studies, offering the state-of-the-art of DT in established firms' literature. The authors find that the most discussed topics revolve around the DT of healthcare, the process of renewal and change, the project management, the changes in value performances and capabilities and the consequences on the products of DT. Accordingly, the authors identify the topics overlooked by literature that future studies could tackle, which concern sustainability and contextualisation of the DT phenomenon.

The authors further propose managerial insights which equip managers with a revolutionary mindset that is not constraining but, rather, integration-seeking. DT is not only about technology (Tabrizi B et al., 2019). Successful DT initiatives require managerial capabilities that foster a sustainable departure from the current organising logic (Markus, 2004). This study pinpoints and prioritises the role that paradox-informed thinking can have to sustain an effective digital mindset (Eden et al., 2018) that allows for the building of momentum in DT initiatives and facilitates the renewal process. Indeed, managers lagging behind DT could shift from an “either-or” solutions mindset where one pole is preferred over the other (e.g. digital or physical) to embracing a “both-and-with” thinking balancing between poles (e.g. digital and physical) to successfully fuse the digital and the legacy (Lewis and Smith, 2022b; Smith, Lewis and Edmondson, 2022), enact the renewal, and build and maintain momentum for DTs. The outcomes of adopting a paradox mindset in managerial practice are enabling learning and creativity, fostering flexibility and resilience and, finally, unleashing human potential (Lewis and Smith, 2014).

The authors propose insight that will equip managers with a mindset that will allow DT to fail less often than current reported rates, which failure may imply potential organisational collapse, financial bankrupt and social crisis.

The authors offer a multidisciplinary review of the DT complementing existing reviews due to the focus on the organisational context of established organisations. Moreover, the authors advance paradoxical thinking as a novel lens through which to study DT in incumbent organisations by proposing an array of potential research questions and new avenues for research. Finally, the authors offer insights for managers to help them thrive in DT by adopting a paradoxical mindset.