A stakeholder approach to understanding economic development decision making: Public subsidies for professional sport facilities

To analyze the politics of economic development decision making through focusing on participants and their interests, this article details a model of stakeholder analysis developed within organization studies by Mitchell, Agle, and Wood for use among policy makers and researchers. Demonstrating the model through the issue of subsidies for the construction of major league sports facilities, a stakeholder map is created to assess the constituent environment based on the degree to which stakeholders possess attributes of power legitimacy, and urgency. With this map, various situational factors are assessed to demonstrate the utility of stakeholder analysis for decision makers to strategically manage constituent groups and to explain case outcomes and the manner in which policies are determined. Although the findings suggest that decision makers should focus their resources on stakeholders possessing all three attributes, monitoring the environment is essential to identify potential threats and opportunities.