Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships

This paper addresses one of the most contentious issues in the entire stakeholder theory debate - the question of who (or what) is a stakeholder. The concepts of legitimacy (Philips 2003; Suchman 1995) and stakeholder responsibility (Windsor 2002) are posited as central considerations. Some unacknow...

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Main Author: de Bussy, Nigel
Other Authors: Dejan Vercic
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Pristop d.o.o. 2006
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/24186
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author de Bussy, Nigel
author2 Dejan Vercic
author_facet Dejan Vercic
de Bussy, Nigel
author_sort de Bussy, Nigel
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper addresses one of the most contentious issues in the entire stakeholder theory debate - the question of who (or what) is a stakeholder. The concepts of legitimacy (Philips 2003; Suchman 1995) and stakeholder responsibility (Windsor 2002) are posited as central considerations. Some unacknowledged parallels between the stakeholder and public relations literatures are noted. An apparently small but highly significant revision to Freema's classic definition of a stakeholder (Freeman 1984) is proposed. A framework based on the notion of stakeholder responsibility is presented as a guide to help managers assess the legitimacy of potential stakeholders and, consequently, to identify who should be accorded stakeholder status.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
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publishDate 2006
publisher Pristop d.o.o.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-241862023-02-27T07:34:28Z Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships de Bussy, Nigel Dejan Vercic Danny Moss Jon White This paper addresses one of the most contentious issues in the entire stakeholder theory debate - the question of who (or what) is a stakeholder. The concepts of legitimacy (Philips 2003; Suchman 1995) and stakeholder responsibility (Windsor 2002) are posited as central considerations. Some unacknowledged parallels between the stakeholder and public relations literatures are noted. An apparently small but highly significant revision to Freema's classic definition of a stakeholder (Freeman 1984) is proposed. A framework based on the notion of stakeholder responsibility is presented as a guide to help managers assess the legitimacy of potential stakeholders and, consequently, to identify who should be accorded stakeholder status. 2006 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/24186 Pristop d.o.o. restricted
spellingShingle de Bussy, Nigel
Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
title Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
title_full Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
title_fullStr Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
title_full_unstemmed Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
title_short Who or what is a stakeholder? The role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
title_sort who or what is a stakeholder? the role of legitimacy in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/24186