STAKEHOLDERS IN THE GREENING PROCESS OF BUSINESS EVENTS: A CONSTRUCTIVIST GROUNDED THEORY TO THE CHINESE CONTEXT

Although the involvement of diverse stakeholders is crucial for business events, there has not been much attempt to investigate who should be considered as stakeholders and how they relate to each other. To fill this gap, this research focuses on identifying the key stakeholders in the greening process of business events using China as the context. A constructivist grounded theory is adopted by draw-ing data from document analysis and in-depth interviews with 17 experienced industry practitioners. It finds that there is a lack of stakeholder engagement due to stakeholders' instrumental and profit-driven approach. A stakeholder diagram with four-level top-to-bottom model is proposed to better achieve green business event goals. Several Chinese characteristics are identified including the key driver of the top-to-bottom administration model. This research provides valuable insights into stake -holder involvement in the greening process of business events and identifies practical implications.