Lake Taupo: a multi-sector collaborative partnership towards sustainable development

Abstract

This paper explores the motivations for and processes of a unique multi‐stakeholder collaboration aimed at the long‐term sustainable development of a region. The region is that of Australasia's largest lake, Lake Taupo, New Zealand. Lake Taupo has geographic features that have not only enabled the development of a strong economy based on tourism, forestry and agriculture but have also generated particular environmental problems. The findings of the case study present highly innovative solutions that are premised on collaboration and on a ‘business case’ for sustainability. From extensive interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, the case confirms extant literature that looks at the roles of leadership, stakeholder engagement, and first movers in bringing about change, but it also highlights further findings that include the surprisingly important role of fringe stakeholders, the difficulties presented by uncertain regulation, and the need to innovate in tailoring solutions to fit the peculiarities of a specific problem. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Why Does Context Really Matter? Understanding Companies’ Dialogue with Fringe Communities

“…Following Hart and Sharma [14], fringe stakeholders are those groups that endure severe socio-environmental conditions and are marginalized, poor, and powerless. Few works attempt to understand how companies deal with these parties, e.g., [38][39][40], and these studies delve into matters such as cross-sector collaboration or stakeholder perceptions. Yet, they do not tackle stakeholder dialogue.…”

“…Hence, a local community that can be classified as fringe stakeholder (fringe communities, hereafter) are meager, isolated, and disadvantaged settlements near companies, which also face complex social-environmental issues. The existence of these communities is pervasive, as they can be found in developed countries such as Australia [45], Canada [46], New Zealand [39], Sweden [50], and United States [16]. Yet, they generally are more common in emerging markets, particularly Latin America [21,24,44], Africa [51,52], and Asia [40].…”

“…McDonald et al [47] evidence that firms may exploit fringe community members' unpaid labor. Babidge [21] exemplifies how a mining corporation limited a town's access to water, and Roper et al [39] report how local communities may be forgotten in forestryfarming projects that directly involve them, bypassing their right to a voice. However, as some posit, e.g., [28], a way to solve these problems and integrate marginalized groups in firms' decision making and uphold their dignity is through dialogue.…”

A study of rice mill innovation for using in household that effects the marketing mix satisfaction of farmers in Thailand

“…Innovative portable rice mill machine (Innovation, 2020) as a product for organic rice farmers is fully tested to meet the rice production needs, demands, and industry standards. Various factors are considered, such as the percentage of broken rice, dirt generated by electricity, the response to market changes in the business, and responding to consumer demand for satisfaction with the 7P's marketing mix (Bavorova, Unay‐Gailhard, & Lehberger, 2016; Booms & Bitner, 2009; Chou, Horng, Liu, & Lin, 2020; Garner, 2019; Roper, Collins, & de Jong, 2015; Sundararaj 2016, 2019; Sundararaj, Muthukumar, & Kumar, 2018; Vinu, 2019; 2020). In line with innovation, farmers need a rice mill machine, which is small, portable, inexpensive, and can be also used as a commercial household.…”

Hospitable Planet: Faith, Action, and Climate Change by Stephen A. Jurovics. New York, USA: Morehouse Publishing, 2016. 155 pp. ISBN 978-0-8192-3253-3

“…change and, in this regard, move beyond programmatic and service delivery changes (Roper et al, 2015); c) create new, innovative solutions because of the diversity of skills, knowledge and experience present in a multi-sector partnership (Roper et al, 2015); d) establish an equal distribution of resource expenditure which alleviates the challenge of only one or two sectors bearing the weight of over extending their resources (Edelenbos & Klijn, 2007;Woulfe, Oliver, Zahner & Siemering, 2010); and e) secure positive public reception to the solutions offered by the partnership because different sectors within the partnership can ultimately reach a wider audience (Roper et al, 2015). However, while multi-sector collaborative partnerships may seem as though they are inherently structured for success, they often encounter many challenges in functioning well and achieving their goal.…”