Stakeholder analysis and engagement in projects: From stakeholder relational perspective to stakeholder relational ontology

• The stakeholder analysis and engagement in the field of project management.
• Proposition of a relevant conceptual approach, based on the Actor-Network Theory (ANT).
• Reading and understanding of a longitudinal case study of an Information System (IS) project.
• Shedding light on the dynamic and emergent nature of the relationships between stakeholders during the project.

This paper investigates the stakeholder analysis and engagement in the field of project management. In response to the limits of prior studies, we propose a relevant conceptual approach by moving from a stakeholder relational perspective, anchored in recent studies on Social Network Theory, to a stakeholder relational ontology, anchored in Actor–Network Theory (ANT). We apply our approach to read and understand a longitudinal case study of an Information System (IS) project. Our most important findings suggest that this approach based on ANT improves stakeholders' analysis of and engagement in a project by shedding light on the dynamic and emergent nature of the relationships, since we demonstrate that the nature, roles, and relations between stakeholders co-evolve with the project's definition and trajectory. Consequently, we can provide project managers with a relevant approach that informs them about what to observe in stakeholder project networks, as well as how and when to observe them.