This paper proposes a research framework to be employed for investigating stakeholder influences in the local government context. It proposes an overview on philosophical and operational paradigms for undertaking social researches, such as qualitative versus quantitative approaches, positivism versus constructivist philosophies and inductive versus deductive methods. The framework proposed here is a set of two studies and a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches which is carried out with cross sectional survey plus case studies and supported by interviews of validation. The methodology has been tested with public organizations elsewhere with success. The main objective of this paper is to start a discussion about the practicability and future of employing the stakeholder theory to explain the relationship between Brazilian public and private organizations, in which the people, groups and other organizations are able to exert influence upon their decision-making processes.