Stakeholder Dynamics during the Project Front-End: The Case of Nuclear Waste Repository Projects

Abstract

Understanding stakeholder dynamics and their impact on project management is crucial, especially for large and complex projects such as nuclear waste repositories. This study examines the stakeholder dynamics during the project front-end stage of two pioneering nuclear waste repository projects. To analyze changes in stakeholders’ importance and position on a project, we propose and apply a new conceptual framework: a stakeholder salience-position matrix. The study explicates how stakeholder dynamics are influenced by the interaction of stakeholders’ influence behavior, stakeholder management activities, and the project's contextual conditions. Prior stakeholder literature has rarely conceptualized the elements of stakeholder dynamics in a systematic manner.