The role of stakeholders in shifting environmental practices of music festivals in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase understandings of the complexity of stakeholder relationships and their impact on environmental practices in music festivals in Western Canada, but also to highlight how managers can leverage their festival platform for stakeholders to create new partnerships that foster and support primary values around sustainability.Design/methodology/approachWe use a community-based participatory framework to guide this study, and qualitative research methods in the form of in-depth interviews and surveys at three separate music festivals within the interior of British Columbia, Canada.FindingsThe majority of patrons are aware of the environmental impacts of music festivals and are more likely to attend a festival with effective practices. By making environmental sustainability a core value of the festival and communicating environmental objectives with both stakeholders and patrons, managers can begin to alleviate the operational barriers to environmentalism.Originality/valueOne of the primary contributions of this study is that it provides management with deeper understandings of a wide range of barriers to effective environmental practices in Western Canada. We consult directly with both festival management and attendees about environmental practices. This paper presents a fuller perspective of how to move beyond simple measures and craft a more sophisticated and flexible environmental strategy that reduces risk, anticipates obstacles and greatly improves the odds of successful implementation.

Residents' perception of festival impacts and satisfaction: a focus on Zanzibar international film festival (ZIFF)

“…Such measures might include both voluntary and non-voluntary measures. As suggested by Hazel and Mason (2020), voluntary measures might relate to changing the residents attitudes and behavior through social marketing undertaken collaboratively by the government, non-profit organizations, and the festival organizers through promoting the benefits of behaving in environmental friendly ways that will have a trickle down effects on the festival. Non-voluntary measures that can be set by the government might include banning of littering within the festival grounds or the use of biodegradable materials for drinks and food during the festival, reducing its environmental pollution ‘footprint'.…”

Revisiting Stakeholder Theory and Environmentalism: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

“…Starting from Polonsky [4], the stakeholder theory has been repeatedly used by many researchers [5][6][7][8][9] in the corporate environmentalism area. As the concern for environmentalism continues to grow, managers need to understand their relationship with different stakeholder groups and the impact of these groups on their ability to incorporate environmental strategies [10]. Hence, we have proposed an extended model based on the corporate environmentalism model [8] by integrating internal and external stakeholders' perspectives.…”

Events’ external stakeholders and their influence strategies in tourism: perspectives from Borneo

“…On the contrary, McNamara et al (2018) found strategies rooted in softer forms of power such as attraction and inducement to be effective in mobilising resources for large-scale events. Other empirical studies show that stakeholder strategies tend to be largely collaborative (Hazel and Mason, 2020; van Niekerk, 2016; Yaghmour and Scott, 2009). In a more recent study, sports fans and participants were found to seek control of their game experience by establishing and engaging in game rituals, and by using positive or negative word-of-mouth to reward or punish management (Erhardt et al , 2019).…”

“…Events are dependent on external stakeholders for various resources (Getz and Andersson, 2010; McNamara et al , 2018). The event stakeholder literature suggests that different stakeholders have different hindering and facilitating potential that can influence the sustainability and survival of the event (Clarke and Jepson, 2011; Hazel and Mason, 2020; van Niekerk and Getz, 2019). In particular, the position of event external stakeholders is much harder to determine than that of internal stakeholders (van Niekerk, 2016), pointing to the importance of understanding how external stakeholders might exercise their influence in events.…”

“…Although there is a growing body of event stakeholder studies taking a managerial perspective to provide better insights into stakeholder management strategies (Andersson and Getz, 2008; Reid, 2011; Richardson, 2019; van Niekerk, 2016), the reverse approach, examining external stakeholders’ strategic action from the stakeholder perspective has received limited attention. Based on their resource relationships with events, stakeholders can influence organisations using different strategies and tactics to safeguard their interests (Erhardt et al , 2019; Hazel and Mason, 2020). Frooman (1999) proposed a model of stakeholder influence strategies based on resource relationships between the organisation and its external stakeholders.…”