External stakeholder strategic actions in projects: A multi-case study

Although understanding external stakeholders’ influence is important to achieving success, little attention has been paid to their influence strategies in project management. This paper aims to explore combinations of actions that external stakeholders normally pursue to influence construction projects, and to hypothesise factors affecting the use of these combinations. A theoretical framework of stakeholder strategic actions was proposed and applied, and a multiple-case study in the Vietnamese construction industry was employed. Three combinations of influence strategies were identified: communication and credibility building were employed concurrently by organised groups in projects affecting the environment; direct action and conflict escalation were exerted together by unorganised groups in cases leading to displacements of the locals; and coalition building was combined with communication by both groups irrespective of projects’ impacts. The utilisation of a combination can be affected by the selection of lobbying actions and characteristics of individual strategies, and stakeholders’ motives, attributes and perceptions.