Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:22:51.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Stakeholder Theory is Not

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Robert Phillips ,
R. Edward Freeman  and
Andrew C. Wicks
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The term stakeholder is a powerful one. This is due, to a significant degree, to its conceptual breadth. The term means different things to different people and hence evokes praise or scorn from a wide variety of scholars and practitioners. Such breadth of interpretation, though one of stakeholder theory’s greatest strengths, is also one of its most prominent theoretical liabilities. The goal of the current paper is like that of a controlled burn that clears away some of the underbrush of misinterpretation in the hope of denying easy fuel to the critical conflagration that would raze the theory. We aim to narrow its technical meaning for greater facility of use in management and organizational studies. By elaborating a number of common misinterpretations – critical and friendly – of the theory, we hope to render a stronger and more convincing theory as a starting place for future research.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 479 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J. S. 1963. “Toward an Understanding of Inequity.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67, pp. 422–436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnett, Anthony. 1997. “Towards a Stakeholder Democracy,” in Kelly, Kelly, and Gamble, 1997, pp. 82–98.Google Scholar
Berman, Shawn L., Wicks, Andrew C., Kotha, Suresh and Jones, Thomas M.. 1999. “Does Stakeholder Orientation Matter? The Relationship Between Stakeholder Management Models and Firm Financial Performance.” Academy of Management Journal 42(5): 488–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, Norman E., and Freeman, R. Edward, eds. 1992. Ethics and Agency Theory (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Byrne, John A. 1999. Chainsaw (New York: HarperBusiness).Google Scholar
Clark, Robert C. 1985. “Agency costs versus fiduciary duties.” in Principals and Agents: The Structure of Business, ed. Pratt, John W. and Zeckhauser, Richard J., pp. 55–79.Google Scholar
Collins, James C., and Porras, Jerry I. 1994. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (New York: Harper Collins).Google Scholar
Colquitt, Jason A., Conlon, Donald E., Wesson, Michael J., Porter, Christopher O. L.H., and Yee Ng, K. 2001. “Justice at the Millennium: A Meta-Analytic Review of 25 Years of Organizational Justice Research.” Journal of Applied Psychology 86(3): 425–445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corry, Dan. 1997. “Macroeconomic Policy and Stakeholder Capitalism.” in Kelly, Kelly, and Gamble, 1997, pp. 185–202.Google Scholar
Descartes, Rene. 1641/1985. The Philosophical Writings of Rene Descartes, ed. John, Cottingham, Robert, Stoothof, and Dugald, Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Deutsch, M. 1975. “Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used As the Basis for Distributive Justice?” Journal of Social Issues 31(3): 137–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, M.. 1985. Distributive Justice (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. 1982. Corporations and Morality (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. 1989. The Ethics of International Business (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas, and Dunfee, Thomas W.. 1994. “Toward a Unified Conception of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contracts Theory.” Academy of Management Review 18 (2): 252–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas, and Dunfee, Thomas W.. 1995. “Integrative Social Contracts Theory: A Communitarian Conception of Economic Ethics.” Economics and Philosophy 11: 85–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas, and Dunfee, Thomas W.. 1999. Ties That Bind (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas, and Preston, L.E.. 1995. “The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications.” Academy of Management Review 20(1): 65–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, Albert J. 1996. Mean Business (New York: Simon & Schuster).Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1992. Local Justice (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).Google Scholar
“Former Sunbeam Chief Exec Settles Hldr Lawsuit for $15M.” Dow Jones Newswire, January 14, 2002.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward. 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Boston: Pitman Publishing Inc.).Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward. 1994. “The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions.” Business Ethics Quarterly 4(4): 409–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward, Laura, Dunham, and Jeanne, Liedtka. 2001. “The Soft Underbelly of Stakeholder Theory: Towards Understanding Community.” Darden School Working Paper.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward, and Phillips, Robert A.. 2002. “Libertarian Stakeholder Theory.” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(3): 331–349.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1971. “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits.” The New York Times Magazine (September 13).Google Scholar
Frooman, J. 1999. “Stakeholder Influence Strategies.” Academy of Management Review 24(2): 191–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gioia, D. A. 1999. “Practicability, Paradigms, and Problems in Stakeholder Theorizing.” Academy of Management Review 24(2): 228–232.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Jerald. 1990. “Organizational Justice: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” Journal of Management 16(2): 399–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, Michael, and James, Champy. 1993. Reengineering the Corporation (New York: HarperBusiness).Google Scholar
Handy, Charles. 1992. “Balancing Corporate Power: A New Federalist Paper.” Harvard Business Review (Nov.–Dec.): 59–67.Google Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 1988. Morality Within the Limits of Reason (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Hendry, John. 2001a. “Missing the Target: Normative Stakeholder Theory and the Corporate Governance Debate.” Business Ethics Quarterly 11(1): 159–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendry, John. 2001b. “Economic Contracts versus Social Relationships as a Foundation for Normative Stakeholder Theory.” Business Ethics: A European Review 10(3): 223–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, C. W. L., and Jones, T.M.. 1992. “Stakeholder-agency Theory.” Journal of Management Studies 29: 131–154.Google Scholar
Hutton, Will. 1995. The State We’re In (London: Jonathan Cape).Google Scholar
Jensen, Michael C. 2000. “Value Maximization and the Corporate Objective Function.” in Beer, M. and Nohria, N., Breaking the Code of Change (Boston: Harvard Business School Press), pp. 37–58. Reprinted (2002) as “Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function,” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(2): 235–256.Google Scholar
Jones, Thomas M. 1995. “Instrumental Stakeholder Theory: A Synthesis of Ethics and Economics.” Academy of Management Review 20(2): 404–437.Google Scholar
Jones, Thomas M., and Wicks, A.C.. 1999a. “Convergent Stakeholder Theory.” Academy of Management Review 24(2): 206–221.Google Scholar
Jones, Thomas M., and Wicks, A.C.. 1999b. “Letter to AMR Regarding ‘Convergent Stakeholder Theory.’” Academy of Management Review 24(4): 621–623.Google Scholar
Kelly, Gavin, Dominic, Kelly, and Andrew, Gamble, eds. 1997. Stakeholder Capitalism (London: MacMillan Press).Google Scholar
Leventhal, G. S. 1976. “The Distribution of Rewards and Resources in Groups and Organizations.” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 9, ed. Berkowitz, L. and Walster, E. (New York: Academic Press), pp. 91–131.Google Scholar
Lind, E. A., and Tyler, T.. 1988. The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice. (New York: Plenum).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcoux, Alexei M. 2000. “Balancing Act.” in Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics, 4th edition, edited by DesJardins, J.R. and McCall, J.J. (Wadsworth), pp. 92–100.Google Scholar
Marens, Richard, and Andrew, Wicks. 1999. “Getting Real: Stakeholder Theory, Managerial Practice, and the General Irrelevance of Fiduciary Duties Owed to Shareholders.” Business Ethics Quarterly 9(2): 273–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadler, David A., and Tushman, Michael L.. 1997. Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture (New York: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orts, Eric. 1992. “Beyond Shareholders: Interpreting Corporate Constituency Statutes.” George Washington Law Review 61: 14–135.Google Scholar
Orts, Eric. 1997. “A North American Legal Perspective on Stakeholder Management Theory.” Perspectives on Company Law 2: 165–179.Google Scholar
Orts, Eric W., and Alan, Strudler. 2002. “The Ethical and Environmental Limits of Stakeholder Theory.” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(2): 215–234.Google Scholar
Perraton, Jonathan. 1997. “The Global Economy.” in Kelly, Kelly, and Gamble, 1997, pp. 226–237.Google Scholar
Peters, T. J., and Waterman, R.H.. 1982. In Search of Excellence (New York: Harper & Row).Google Scholar
Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Salancik, Gerald R.. 1978. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective (New York: Harper & Row).Google Scholar
Phillips, R. A. 1997. “Stakeholder Theory and A Principle of Fairness” Business Ethics Quarterly 7 (1): 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, R. A.. 2003. “Stakeholder Legitimacy.” Business Ethics Quarterly 13(1).Google Scholar
Phillips, R. A., and Margolis, J.M.. 1999. “Toward an Ethics of Organizations” Business Ethics Quarterly 9(4): 619–638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, R. A., and Reichart, J.. 2000. “The Environment as a Stakeholder? A Fairness Based Approach.” Journal of Business Ethics 23(2): 183–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, Dennis P., and Jones, Thomas M.. 1995. “An Agent Morality View of Business Policy.” Academy of Management Review 20(1): 22–42.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 1993. Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press).Google Scholar
Rustin, Mike. 1997. “Stakeholding and the Public Sector,” in Kelly, Kelly, and Gamble, 1997, pp. 72–81.Google Scholar
Senge, P. M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline (New York: Doubleday).Google Scholar
Simmons, A. John. 1979. Moral Principles and Political Obligations (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Sollars, G. G. 2001. “An Appraisal of Shareholder Proportional Liability.” Journal of Business Ethics 32(4): 329–345.Google Scholar
Soskice, David. 1997. “Stakeholding Yes; the German Model No,” in Kelly, Kelly, and Gamble, 1997, pp. 219–225.Google Scholar
Sternberg, Elaine. 1998. Corporate Governance: Accountability in the Marketplace (London: The Institute of Economic Affairs).Google Scholar
Sternberg, Elaine. 2000. Just Business (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Sternberg, Elaine. 2001. “The Stakeholder Concept: A Mistaken Doctrine.” Foundation for Business Responsibilities.Google Scholar