Managing Relational Legacies: Lessons from British Columbia, Canada

Sofiane Baba and Emmanuel Raufflet
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Sofiane Baba: HEC Montréal, 15-2849 Édouard-Montpetit, Montréal, QC H3T 1J6, Canada
Emmanuel Raufflet: HEC Montréal, 3000 Ch. de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, office 5.220, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada

Administrative Sciences, 2014, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Issues related to company-community relations and the social license to operate have emerged as strategic business issues. This paper aims to contribute to the growing body of research on long-term company-community relations. An analysis of the relationship between Alcan (Aluminum of Canada, Montréal, Canada part of Rio Tinto since 2007) with the Cheslatta Carrier First Nation in the Kemano-Kitimat area of northern British Columbia, Canada, provides three contributions. The first is related to the notion of relational legacy, which refers to the sedimentation of unresolved issues that have the potential to impede the realization of corporate activities and the reproduction of low levels of social license to operate. The second concerns stakeholder management. While the literature suggests that stakeholders should be managed by companies according to the degree of salience, this analysis suggests that researchers and managers should consider the evolution of the environmental context in their analyses. Third, the analysis suggests that small or marginalized groups, depicted by the stakeholder management literature as dormant stakeholders, should not be underestimated.

Keywords: stakeholders; relational legacy; community engagement; community relations; controversy; social license to operate; social acceptance; local communities; sustainability; Aboriginal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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