Stakeholder analysis for R&D project management ArunA.Elias, 1 RobertY.Cavana 1 andLaurieS.Jackson 2 1 School of Business and Public Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. arun.elias@vuw.ac.nz, bob.cavana@vuw.ac.nz 2 School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. laurie.jackson@vuw.ac.nz R&D projects affect the interests of different stakeholders in different ways. Understanding the stakeholdersandanalysingtheirinterestshelpsinthebettermanagementofR&Dprojects.Inthispaper wediscussamethodologytosystematicallyanalysethestakeholdersofR&Dprojects.Thismethodology includes Freeman’s (1984) three levels of analysis: rational, process and transactional. Based on these three levels, the stakeholder management capability of an R&D project is determined. The final stage is based on Mitchell et al. (1997) approach to analysing the dynamics of stakeholders. This methodology is illustrated using a New Zealand case relating to a road pricing R&D project. 1. Introduction T he research interest in the field of stakeholder identification, analysis and salience is growing. Since the publication of Freeman’s landmark book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984), about a dozen books and more than 100 articles with primary emphasis on the stakeholder concept have appeared in the management literature (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). Stake- holder theories are being proposed and experts in the field are debating over the acceptability of these theories. Stakeholder issues are important while managing R&D projects (Coombs et al., 1998). We begin this paper by presenting some examples of stakeholder issues in the R&D management literature. Then, to get a better understanding of the stakeholder concept, we explore and classify the stakeholder concepts in management literature. Based on this literature, we suggest a stakeholder analysis methodology suitable for managing R&D projects. Finally, we demonstrate this methodology by presenting a New Zealand case study. 2. Stakeholders in R&D management Researchers in the field of R&D management have acknowledged the importance of stakeholders. Intro- ducing the scope of fourth generation R&D, Miller (1995) suggested that participation of multiple stake- holders would permit concurrent learning and align- ment of multiple sets of stakeholder values. While trying to extend the definition of stakeholders, he explained that stakeholders exist beyond the boundary of a single organisation into a partnership infrastruc- ture. According to him, fourth generation R&D applies the concept of participatory design to the entire innovation system, and integrates the potential customer (user) and partners into R&D activity, thereby building overlapping communities of practice. He also proposed that one of the steps in fourth generation R&D is performing prototype tests with stakeholders. Tipping etal., (1995) noticed that various R&D stakeholders have different interest and perspec- tives on the innovation process and they accommo- dated it in a Technology Value Pyramid model representing a hierarchy of managerial factors. Reijs (1994), while reporting the Foresight studies in the R&D Management 32, 4, 2002. # Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 301 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.