Stakeholder
Stakeholder theorists view the corporation as acollectionofinternalandexternalgroups(e.g., shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, and neighboring communities) - that is, “stakeholders”, originally defined as those who are affected by and/or can affect the achievement of the firm’s objectives
Stakeholders are persons or groups that have, or claim, ownership, rights, or interests in a corporation and its activities, past, present, or future. Such claimed rights or interests are the result of transactions with, or actions taken by, the corporation, and may be legal or moral, individual or collective. Stakeholders with similar interests, claims, or rights can be classified as belonging to the same group: employees, shareholders, customers, and so on. A primary stakeholder group is one without whose continuing participation the corporation cannot survive as a going concern. Primary stakeholder groups typically are comprised of shareholders and investors, em- ployees, customers, and suppliers, together with what is defined as the public stakeholder group: the governments and communities that provide infrastructures and markets, whose laws and regulations must be obeyed, and to whom taxes and other obligations may be due. There is a high level of interdependence between the corporation and its primary stakeholder groups.
Secondary stakeholder groups are defined as those who influence or affect, or are influenced or affected by, the corporation, but they are not engaged in transactions with the corporation and are not essential for its survival .
⠀ Jones, T. M., Felps, W., Bigley, G. A. (2007). Ethical Theory and Stakeholder related Decisions: The Role of Stakeholder Culture. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, # 2, Pp. 137-155 (P. 137).
⠀ Clarkson, M. B. E. (1995). A Stakeholder Framework For Analyzing And Evaluating Corporate Social Performance. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 20, # 1, P. 92-117 (P. 106-107)