Towards an Integrated Approach to Corporate Sustainability: The Role of Multi‐Stakeholder Value Co‐Creation in the Food and Beverage Sector

ABSTRACT

The growing emphasis on sustainability has prompted companies to engage with stakeholders in addressing environmental and social challenges. This paper investigates how companies and stakeholders co‐create value through a collaborative and iterative process that facilitates the formulation and implementation of sustainable strategies. Using a multi‐case study approach, we examine three multinational companies in the food and beverage sector of Pakistan. Data were collected through official reports and 26 semi‐structured interviews. Through systematic coding, we identified nine interdependent aspects of the value co‐creation process, spanning stakeholder motivations, resource exchange, accountability mechanisms and sustainable outcomes, which informed the development of an integrated corporate sustainability framework. We introduce the concept of co‐sustainability to capture the participatory, iterative and context‐sensitive nature of this process. The paper contributes to the literature on value co‐creation, strategic stakeholder integration and sustainability governance, while offering practical insights for companies operating in environmentally vulnerable and institutionally fluid contexts.