Sustainable innovations through project partnerships at higher education institutions: challenges and implications for stakeholder engagement

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify challenges and derive options for stakeholder engagement of project partnerships for sustainable innovations in higher education institutions (HEIs). Design/methodology/approach: Guided by Donabedian’s structure-process-outcome (SPO) model, our conceptual exploration focuses on understanding stakeholder experience and identifying stakeholder engagement options in different project phases. This research includes empirical data on sustainability expectations towards HEIs collected from 239 business students from the USA and Germany. The Kano method and factor analysis were used for data analysis. Findings: This research suggests that balancing differences in stakeholder types and priorities, identifying and fulfilling key stakeholder expectations and addressing their resource limitations play a crucial role in the partnership’s structure stage. Adjustments for timing and forms of engagement, based on the stakeholder types and their expectations, are necessary during the process stage. Attaining stakeholder consensus on goal achievement and fostering trust and long-term commitment for sustainability are vital tasks in the outcome stage. Practical implications: HEIs are advised to identify and assess stakeholders according to their anticipated inputs and contributions to the expected project outputs. They should consider adopting minimal thresholds of involvement and actively engaging key stakeholders, students, by demonstrating direct sustainability impacts. Originality/value: This conceptual study adds value by enhancing the understanding of sustainable project partnerships in HEIs through the adoption of concepts from open innovation, service management and relationship management research. It illuminates the significance of stakeholder engagement and experience, including the management of expectations, thereby supporting HEIs in effectively implementing sustainability initiatives.

The version of record is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2024-1060. The full citation is as follows: [Sustainable innovations through project partnerships at higher education institutions: challenges and implications for stakeholder engagement. Management Decision (2024)]. 'This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com'