George Bernard Shaw famously quipped that “the single biggest problem in communications is the illusion that it has taken place.” This is often the case when it comes to interactions between firms and stakeholders. Organizations need to improve communication with key actors to foster trust, enhance cooperation, and mitigate potential risks and conflicts.

But what form does that communication take? And should it differ depending on the stakeholder profile?

In a recent study published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Wharton professor Witold Henisz, Stern School of Business associate professor Sinziana Dorobantu, and I shed light on the four factors that matter most when dealing with stakeholders: timeliness, valence, richness, and topicality. We observe how the speed of a firm’s response (timeliness), the tone of that response (valence), the depth of engagement (richness), and the degree of responsiveness to the specific issues raised by the stakeholder (topicality) influence stakeholder reactions.

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