Value Management: Enterprises’ Interest in Stakeholders and Its Impact on Creating Sustainable Relationships with Suppliers and Buyers

The paper aims to identify the connection between the enterprise’s interest in the stakeholders and their mutual relationship. It examines whether stakeholders’ opinions, priorities, needs, and goals influence the enterprise’s decisions in managing sustainable relationships with buyers and suppliers. Additionally, it explores whether the knowledge regarding the stakeholders (such as their needs, opinions, etc.) affects the relationship between the enterprise and the stakeholders. Establishing a good, mutual, long-lasting, and sustainable relationship with stakeholders is an integral part of the value creation process and value management. The study first determines whether enterprises implement value management and then assesses the impact of buyers’ and suppliers’ opinions, priorities, and goals on the decision-making process in building these relationships. It also evaluates the strength of these relationships, where a stronger relationship indicates greater sustainability. The focus is on relationships with suppliers and buyers, with responses collected from 385 Slovak manufacturing enterprises. The analysis of how knowledge of stakeholders’ needs, priorities, and goals impacts relationships with suppliers and buyers was conducted separately using the Shapiro–Wilk test, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and ANOVA.