Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Policy Implementation Success: Mediating Role of Communication Quality, Coordination Effectiveness, and Institutional Trust

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of stakeholder engagement on policy implementation success in Bangladesh’s health sector, focusing on the mediating roles of communication quality, coordination effectiveness, and institutional trust. Grounded in governance and stakeholder theory, the study develops and tests a comprehensive structural model to explain how participatory mechanisms translate into effective policy outcomes. Data were collected from 460 respondents representing government health officials, healthcare providers, NGO partners, and local administrators. The analysis was conducted using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine direct, indirect, and sequential relationships among constructs. The findings reveal that stakeholder engagement has a significant positive effect on policy implementation success. Moreover, communication quality, coordination effectiveness, and institutional trust significantly mediate this relationship, forming both parallel and sequential pathways. The results further indicate that coordination effectiveness exerts the strongest direct influence on policy implementation success, while institutional trust plays a critical psychological and relational mediating role. The model demonstrates strong explanatory and predictive power, confirming the robustness of the proposed governance framework. The study contributes to the literature by advancing a multi-layered mediation model that explains how stakeholder engagement operates through interconnected governance mechanisms. It also provides empirical evidence from a developing country context, where institutional complexity and coordination challenges are particularly pronounced. The findings offer important implications for strengthening participatory governance structures in health policy systems.

Received: 2026-04-10 | Revised: 2026-06-02 | Accepted: 2026-06-23 | Published: 2026-06-30

Declarations 

Ethics and Guidelines: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The ethical approval specifically covers the research procedures and data collection activities conducted for this study.

Consent to participate: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection. Consent was obtained using a standardized written form, signed by each participant before participation in the survey.

Consent to publish: The authors have provided consent to publish.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Data availability statement: Data will be made available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Clinical Trial Number: Not Applicable.

Declaration of using generative AI: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used ChatGPT in order to correct the grammatical errors. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, M.F.U.; methodology, M.F.U.; formal analysis, M.F.U.; writing—original draft preparation, M.F.U.; writing—review and editing, M.F.U. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.