Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 10, 1999

Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting

Harnessing Complexity, Idiosyncrasy and Time
A Modeling Methodology for Corporate Multi-Stakeholder Decisions

This paper describes a modeling methodology for complex strategic decisions involving multiple stakeholders with multiple and divergent objectives. The methodology focuses on major strategic decisions, extracts underlying objectives, and illuminates stakeholder relations. We apply the modeling methodology to the fascinating story of Canadian forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel both for illustration and for theoretical purposes. We hope to demonstrate that this new methodology can preserve the idiosyncrasy of individual corporate decision cases, and yet permit comparison between vastly different decisions to contribute to the empirical base of stakeholder theory.