Stakeholder influence strategies in construction projects

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate strategies that external stakeholders can employ to affect construction project outcomes and, second, to identify essential requirements for utilising each strategy. Design/methodology/approach: A new theoretical framework of stakeholder influence strategies was proposed and applied. The research design is a multi-case study, comprising four cases in the construction industry in Vietnam. Findings: Seven specific strategies were found, including inputs withholding, inputs compromising, communication, direct action, coalition building, conflict escalation and credibility building. When possessing project inputs, stakeholders can affect a project directly via a withholding or compromising strategy. Communication is available to those who have basic communicating skills; however, direct action is only employed by groups that include a large number of members. Objectors must have common interests or goals with their potential allies for using coalition building. Conflict escalation is restricted to communities having distinctive characteristics which can be used to create new problems sensibly, while credibility building is used by parties possessing adequate resources and expertise. Research limitations/implications: This study’s generalisability may be limited by the main source of data and the types of projects in the selected cases. Practical implications: This study provides directions for project managers to predict stakeholder influence by taking project inputs and utilisation requirements of the strategies into consideration. Originality/value: This study is one of the first investigations on stakeholder-attributes-related requirements for utilising influence strategies in projects.