Doing stakeholder engagement their own way: experience from the Malawian mining industry

In recent years, stakeholder engagement has increasingly become a catchphrase in response to calls for corporate accountability to their stakeholders in the developing countries. However, the processes and practices companies pursue to engage stakeholders tend to conspicuously be variable depending on whether one draws on the instrumental and descriptive perspectives of the stakeholder theory. The purpose of this paper is therefore to test these perspectives, which we do through considering the case of a subsidiary of a multinational firm fictitiously known as Ashford (Africa) Limited, which operates in Malawi, as a member of the global mining industry. Using qualitative data obtained from interviews with Ashford (Malawi)'s managers and stakeholders, this study highlights the significance of paying more attention to firm specific factors, community dynamics and the civil society (NGO) related factors, as they are fundamental to the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement agenda pursued by mining companies in the developing countries.