Publicly traded corporations are under increasing amounts of pressure from society at large to redirect resources toward maximizing the value that accrues to non-shareholding stakeholders of the organization. Building on the management and public relations literature, this study proposes a shareholder-stakeholder engagement model on corporate social responsibility (CSR)-the totality of corporate actions to meet societal norms and expectations. The study argues that shareholder activist-corporate engagements on CSR issues can enhance the corporation's sensitivity to stakeholder issues through improvements in the stakeholder governance mechanisms-institutions that safeguard stakeholder interests and maximize stakeholder welfare-within the corporations. Social shareholder activists, a special type of stakeholders, can be a viable source of pressure in influencing corporations to improve weaknesses in stakeholder governance mechanisms.
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