ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the first process that is needed in order to develop an effective management of stakeholder relations, i.e., Identify Stakeholders. Main issue in identifying stakeholders is that facing multilevel complexity, which characterizes both the stakeholders and, a fortiori, their relationships, requires mandatorily the use of classification models. Two main types of classification models for stakeholders, which are based on two diverse perspectives, are then considered: multiple classification models, which consider the belonging of stakeholders to different subjective categories, and the innovative classification of stakeholders in communities, which reflects the stakeholder objective behavior. Most commonly used multiple classification models are the grids, and especially the power/influence grid, the stakeholder cube, and the salience model. On other side, the innovative behavioral classification of stakeholders in communities (i.e., Purchasers, Providers, Investors, and Influencers), each one sharing a common prevalent interest and a common organizational language, is indeed a segmentation of the domain of stakeholders that helps effectively to reduce drastically the complexity of stakeholder management.
