CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits of incorporating
stakeholder theory and application to the feasibility analysis of a
natural resource attraction. One advantage of this application was
the ability in the pre-start up phase of a development to gain multiple
perspectives on stakeholder salience. While the original intention of
stakeholder theories like Mitchell et al’s (1997) is to explain the managerial
perspective, for sustainable developments this limitation can
leave social and environmental concerns underrepresented. Widening
the perspective does mitigate some of the managerial bias.
Determining stakeholder orientation using the three attributes of
power, legitimacy and urgency is beneficial in a number of ways. First,
the three attributes provide common language based on defined characteristics
with which multiple project leaders can discuss stakeholder
issues. Second, in practical terms, the systematic stakeholder analysis
clearly delimits stakeholders. The theory identifies and classifies stakeholders
based on the presence or absence of three attributes. The
structured process of assigning attributes provides a justifiable and
definable boundary for distinguishing between stakeholders and currently
disinterested stakeholders. And third, the model allows for informed
predictions, which are particularly valuable for a feasibility
analysis, where stakeholder relationships are often undetermined. Mitchel
et al’s (1997) theory defines three elements of salience, each of
which can be isolated for the purposes of predicting the nature of a potential
stakeholder relationship. This study examines the application of
the model for one specific purpose, determining stakeholder salience
relevant to the feasibility analysis of a natural resource attraction. Within
this context, the model effectively provides a pragmatic typology
with a justifiable measure of stakeholder salience.