Chapter 1: Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness 21and organizations that can affect the firm’s vision and mission, are affected by the
strategic outcomes achieved, and have enforceable claims on the firm’s perfor-
mance.^106 Claims on a firm’s performance are enforced through the stakeholders’
ability to withhold participation essential to the organization’s survival, competi-
tiveness, and profitability.^107 Stakeholders continue to support an organization when
its performance meets or exceeds their expectations.^108 Also, research suggests that
firms that effectively manage stakeholder relationships outperform those that do not.
Stakeholder relationships and the firm’s overall reputation among stakeholders can
therefore be a source of competitive advantage.^109 This can be illustrated through the
application of a strong stakeholder strategy in the comparison between BlackBerry’s
and Apple’s ecosystem of stakeholders in the strategic focus. BlackBerry was unable
to develop a strong set of application suppliers compared to the Apple ecosystem of
app supplier stakeholders.^110
Although organizations have dependency relationships with their stakeholders,
they are not equally dependent on all stakeholders at all times. As a consequence,
not every stakeholder has the same level of influence.^111 The more critical and valued
a stakeholder’s participation, the greater a firm’s dependency on it. Greater depen-
dence, in turn, gives the stakeholder more potential influence over a firm’s com-
mitments, decisions, and actions. Managers must find ways to either accommodate
or insulate the organization from the demands of stakeholders controlling critical
resources.^1121-5a Classifications of Stakeholders
The parties involved with a firm’s operations can be separated into at least three groups.^113
As shown in Figure 1.4, these groups are the capital market stakeholders (shareholders
and the major suppliers of a firm’s capital), the product market stakeholders (the firm’s
primary customers, suppliers, host communities, and unions representing the work-
force), and the organizational stakeholders (all of a firm’s employees, including both non-
managerial and managerial personnel).
Each stakeholder group expects those making strategic decisions in a firm to pro-
vide the leadership through which its valued objectives will be reached.^114 The objec-
tives of the various stakeholder groups often differ from one another, sometimes placing
Transparent revenue sharing for these developers and a few
early app millionaires created incentive at negligible expense.
On the other hand, BlackBerry restricted its development
community and could not hope to innovate fast enough to
compete with the iPhone’s positive feedback loop accruing
value to customers, innovators, and content providers,
resulting in profitable market share which drew capital
market players as well.
In summary, BlackBerry’s big failure was that it did not pay
attention to the complementary software that became available
on other ecosystems. A big lesson here is that managing sup-
plier and stakeholder value creation also creates strong support
from customers because it creates value for the all stakeholdersand likewise draws financial capital and an associated increasing
stock price.
Sources: S. Cojocaru & C. Cojocaru, 2014, New trends in mobile technology
leadership, Manager, 19(1): 79–89; M. Cording, J. S. Harrison, R. E. Hoskisson, &
K. Jonsen, 2014, “Walking the talk”: A multi-stakeholder exploration of organiza-
tional authenticity, employee productivity and post-merger performance, Academy
of Management Perspectives, 28(1): 38–56; B. Dummit, 2014, BlackBerry’s revenue
falls 34%; decline underscores challenges smartphone maker faces, even as it
cuts costs, Wall Street Journal, http://www.wsj.com, Dec 20; M. Freer, 2014, Four success
strategies from failed business models, Forbes, http://www.forbes.com, Jul 21; D. Gallagher,
2014, BlackBerry’s new plan could bear fruit; attempt at revival is showing signs of
life, Wall Street Journal, http://www.wsj.com, Nov 16; D. Reisinger, 2014, Why BlackBerry is
showing signs of stability under CEO John Chin, eWeek, http://www.eweek.com,
Dec 22; M. G. Jacobides, 2013, BlackBerry forgot to manage the ecosystem,
Business Strategy Review, 24(4), 8; B. Matichuk, 2013, BlackBerry’s business
model led to its failure, Troy Media, http://www.troymedia.com, Oct 1.