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Abstract:

Company-community relations and the social license to operate have emerged as strategic issues for the energy transportation industry. This paper aims to contribute to the growing body of research on community-company relations. Analysis of the relationship between the Enbridge Northern Gateway (ENG) project with stakeholders such as the Union of British Columbia Municipalities during the Tanker Safety Review Panel process (2013-2014) and questions about Boutilier's et al (2012) "social license to operate" (SLO) four level model of company-community relations moving from low-level/non-acceptable to high-level acceptance of the energy proposal are the basis for this casestudy. This is the first known study tackling stakeholders' marine oil spill disaster risk management strategy: acknowledging information gathering efforts specific stakeholders have taken to reduce the anticipated consequences of marine vessel accidents on coastal economies and ecosystems. More broadly, this paper provides three contributions to community-industry research. The first is related to the notion that the knowledge transfer literature has something to offer the business literature about company-community relations. Second, evidence of knowledge transfer among stakeholders provides several insights into emerging company-community interactions. Local governments identify issues such as: changing legislation that supports the oil and gas industry and challenges of building North Pacific Coast of Canada west coast emergency planning and response capacity and capability to manage a large-scale oil spill disaster. Third, a systemic thinking perspective is useful to understand social processes, and identify some greater concerns and themes. The case study provides evidence to suggest: i) Boutilier's et al (2012) SLO social license to operate" model is simplistic, and likely inappropriate for the Canadian context; ii) a stakeholder management model may be inappropriate for building industry-community relations; iii) communities express concerns, if these concerns are not listened to, their risk perceptions becomes elevated; iv) enable conversations about perceptions of risk; and v) a knowledge transfer model will provide guidance to how to develop future opportunities to build communication bridges with stakeholders. Such results could be used to inform future industry-community relationships and to identify how the ENG project has managed to create favorable conditions for sustainable relationships with marginalized stakeholders. This might be a starting point for the ENG Engagement Plan (2014/2015) to tap local communities' risk management initiatives from a bottom up perspective.

Notes:

Compilation and indexing terms, Copyright 2018 Elsevier Inc.<br/>20154701580490<br/>Energy transportation<br/>Information gathering<br/>Knowledge transfer model<br/>Oil and Gas Industry<br/>Perceptions of risks<br/>Risk management strategies<br/>Stakeholder management model<br/>Sustainable relationships