Stakeholder Theory at the Crossroads

Abstract

The stakeholder perspective has provided a rich forum for a variety of debates at the intersection of business and society. Scholars gathered for two consecutive years, first in North America, and then in Europe, to discuss the major issues surrounding what has come to be known as stakeholder theory, to attempt to find common ground, and to uncover areas in need of further inquiry. Those meetings led to a list of “tensions” and a call for papers for this special issue to help address them. In this article, we introduce the resulting articles and provide some brief commentary on their importance. We end with a few of our own observations about the stakeholder perspective and stakeholder research.

The influence of ecosystems on the entrepreneurship process: a comparison across developed and developing economies

“…Sixth, future research should also include reports produced by multinational organisations (World Bank, Economic Forum, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, European Commission, Inter-American Development Bank, OECD, among others) and research institutions (Kauffman Foundations, NESTA, Babson College, Global Entrepreneurship Institute, Max Planck Institute, among others) without ignoring the stakeholder approach (Barney and Harrison 2020). In this vein, it is crucial to analyse the influence of diversity in contextual conditions per entrepreneurial stage (see Appendix Table 6), as well as the specific drivers/barriers in the transition from one stage to the next one.…”

Governance and Business-Society Relations in Areas of Limited Statehood: An Introduction

“…Businesses have, in other words, "moral freedom" to engage in tailor-made micro contracts at corporate, industry, and/or national-level ethics and norms, as long as such contracts build on universal morality (Donaldson & Dunfee, 2002, p. 1858. In a similar vein, the dominant literature on stakeholder theory emphasizes the legitimacy of stakeholders-rather than social contracts-as the key unit of analysis (Barney & Harrison, 2020). In any case, the ALS literature's focus on governance by, with and without government throughout all societies provides a strong incentive to develop analytical lenses beyond the Eurocentric and normative assessment of where to draw the lines between formal/informal, legitimate/ illegitimate, and legal/illegal state and non-state actors.…”

Something Old, Something New: Continuity and Change at Business & Society

“…Global society is increasingly grappling with grand challenges, such as climate change, human rights violation, global poverty, socioeconomic inequalities, mass migration, and institutional corruption, in which business is just one of the stakeholders that needs to work in tandem with public and civil society actors in efforts to seek better outcomes (Reinecke & Ansari, 2016). New conversations setting the stage for advancing research on issues that are critical to our society include such topics as sustainable development goals (e.g., Howard-Grenville et al, 2019), modern slavery (e.g., Caruana et al, 2019), human rights (e.g., Van Buren et al, 2019), stakeholder management (e.g., Barney & Harrison, 2018), social entrepreneurship (e.g., Rawhouser et al, 2019), social irresponsibility (e.g., Chiu & Sharfman, 2018), economic inequality (e.g., Bapuji et al, 2018), cross-sector partnerships (e.g., Bode et al, 2019), social impact measurement (e.g., Barnett et al, 2020), corporate governance (e.g., Brown et al, 2019), corporate political and corporate social responsibility (CSR) alignment (e.g., den Hond et al, 2014), and reporting-led organizational transformation (e.g., Higgins et al, 2019). As noted by the former editors, “We have a domain that is attracting more and more attention and a journal that is well-positioned to play a leading role in these important debates” (de Bakker et al, 2018, p. 1292).…”