Identification of key stakeholders’ engagement factors in sustainability management in Malaysia with a modified model on stakeholder theories

This study conducted a stakeholder analysis on sustainability reports and explored the application of stakeholder theories for sustainability management in companies in Malaysia. The study aimed to identify key stakeholders’ engagement factors in organisational sustainability management. It covered the identification of the key stakeholder groups, the significance of power and interests in influencing stakeholders according to stakeholder theories, and the manner of stakeholder engagement in sustainability among companies. The methodology employed a quantitative and qualitative approach with data collected from the sustainability reports from companies by integrating with systematic descriptive, instrumental, and normative stakeholder analysis. This study identified five crucial stakeholders’ engagement factors in organisational sustainability management. A modification model of the stakeholder theory improved with the dynamic intensity of the engagement bridge model, strengthening the interactive bridging of power-interest gaps between high and low-power stakeholders established to explain the stakeholder analysis of companies in the study.