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  3. Stakeholder Theory
  • Cited by 116
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
August 2018
Print publication year:
2018
Online ISBN:
9781108539500
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108539500
Series:
Elements in Organization Theory
Subjects:
Organisation Studies, Management
Information

Book description

The stakeholder perspective is an alternative way of understanding how companies and people create value and trade with each other. Freeman, Harrison and Zyglidopoulos discuss the foundation concepts and implementation of stakeholder management as well as the advantages this approach provides to firms and their managers. They present a number of tools that managers can use to implement stakeholder thinking, better understand stakeholders and create value with and for them. The Element concludes by discussing how managers can create stakeholder oriented control systems and by examining some of the important stakeholder-related issues that are worthy of future scholarly and managerial attention.

References

Suggested Reading

We include here a few interesting books and articles that we drew on as a foundation for this Element. We recommend them to you if you are interested in exploring stakeholder management further.

Books

Freeman, R. Edward. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman, 1984 (republished in 2010 by Cambridge University Press).
Freeman, R. Edward, Harrison, Jeffrey S., & Wicks, Andrew C. Managing for stakeholders: Survival, reputation and success. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
Freeman, R. Edward, Harrison, Jeffrey S., Wicks, Andrew C., Parmar, Bidhan, & de Colle, Simone. Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Friedman, Andrew L., & Miles, Samantha. Stakeholders: Theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Phillips, Robert. Stakeholder theory and organizational ethics. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003.
Sachs, Sybille, & Rühli, Edwin. Stakeholders matter: A new paradigm for strategy in society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Articles

Here also are a few articles you might find interesting, and that also influenced our preparation of this Element. Some of them are a little more academic in their flavor, but they all have messages and implications of practical importance.

Freeman, R. Edward, Wicks, Andrew, C., & Parmar, Bidhan 2004. Stakeholder theory and “the corporate objective revisited.” Organization Science, 15(3), 364–369.
Harrison, Jeffrey S., & Bosse, Douglas A. 2013. How much is too much? The limits to generous treatment of stakeholders. Business Horizons, 56(3), 313–322.
Harrison, Jeffrey S., Bosse, Douglas A., & Phillips, Robert A. 2010. Managing for stakeholders, stakeholder utility functions and competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 31(1), 58–74.
Harrison, Jeffrey S., & St. John, Caron H. 1996. Managing and partnering with external stakeholders. Academy of Management Executive, 10(2), 46–60.
Jones, Thomas M. 1995. Instrumental stakeholder theory: A synthesis of ethics and economics. Academy of Management Review, 20(2), 404–437.
McVea, John F., & Freeman, R. Edward. 2005. A names-and-faces approach to stakeholder management: How focusing on stakeholders as individuals can bring ethics and entrepreneurial strategy together. Journal of Management Inquiry, 14(1), 57–69.
Phillips, Robert, Freeman, R. Edward, & Wicks, Andrew C. 2003. What stakeholder theory is not. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(4), 479–502.
Strand, Robert, & Freeman, R. Edward. 2015. Scandinavian cooperative advantage: The theory and practice of stakeholder engagement in Scandinavia. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), 65–85.
Zyglidopoulos, Stelios C. 2002. The social and environmental responsibilities of multinationals: Evidence from the Brent Spar case. Journal of Business Ethics, 36(1–2), 141–151.
Zyglidopoulos, Stelios C. 2003. The issue life-cycle: Implications for reputation for social performance and organizational legitimacy.” Corporate Reputation Review, 6(1), 70–81.

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