ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the potential effects of more sophisticated concepts of stakeholder relationships on stakeholder communication. The pressure to communicate more proactively and more frequently with stakeholders suggests that firms need to, and perhaps do, engage a newly diverse range of stakeholders through enhanced inclusiveness, partnership and dialogue. The stakeholder model of the firm has been highly influential in management theory and practice. In top-down and firm-to-stakeholder communication in multi-stakeholder environments, a key strategic decision for marketers and corporate communication departments is whether to customise or standardise communication to their stakeholder audiences. Communicating a uniform message to stakeholders may be particularly important when a corporation is attempting to orchestrate change and/or protect a firm's image. The differentiated stakeholder perspective acknowledges intra-stakeholder differences. In the differentiated network model, stakeholder relationships must therefore be understood as a complex interplay of shifting, ambiguous and contested relationships between and within diverse organisations.
