How non-market collaboration shapes stakeholders' wellbeing through climate-risk management strategies in emerging market B2B firms?

Abstract

Climate change poses threats to stakeholders' wellbeing, defined as their satisfaction, value realisation, expectations, and retention with the firm. While research has established that enhancing stakeholders' wellbeing requires cross-sector collaboration, industrial marketing scholarship has paid less attention to the challenges faced by resource-constrained firms in emerging markets that often rely on non-market collaborations with government and regulatory bodies to access critical resources and knowledge. Using a survey of firms (n = 142) in Pakistan, which is among the most vulnerable country to climate-change risks, this study shows that non-market collaboration with government agencies promotes stakeholders' wellbeing through a serial mediation of climate-risk management strategies and value co-creation with value-chain (upstream and downstream) partners. Furthermore, the influence of non-market collaboration with climate-risk management strategies is more pronounced under high shareholder pressure. Also, the effects of climate-risk management strategies on value co-creation are strengthened by collaborative communication with value-chain partners. Extending industrial marketing literature that cross-sector partnerships are critical for value co-creation, these findings specifically underscore the importance of non-market collaboration in emerging markets, and demonstrate that multi-stakeholder collaborations facilitate sustainable value-chains, thereby generating positive stakeholders' wellbeing.