Stakeholder: an individual or organization affected by a company’s actions
Business obligation to stakeholder: Derived from the stakeholders’ existence, companies must endow all stakeholders with the some kind of value attributed to shareholders. (Though their value, and the obligation it entails, are not different in kind from those of shareholders, they may be inferior in degree. For example, a shareholder owning 2 shares is owed more sway in company decisions than the shareholder who owns only one share. Similarly, some stakeholders may hold more sway than others.)
The collective bottom line: the summed affect of a company’s actions on all stakeholders.
The reversal of CSR theory: instead of starting with a business and looking out into the world to see what ethical obligations are there, stakeholder theory starts in the world. It lists and describes those individuals and groups who will be affected by (or affect) the company’s actions and asks: what are their legitimate claims on the business, what rights do they have with respect to the company’s actions, what kind of responsibilities and obligations can they justifiably impose on the business?
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