This paper argues that industrial responses to 'green' pressures may f
ruitfully be explored using a stakeholder framework. However, the comm
on view of an objective configuration of stakeholders is replaced with
one that favours an interpretive perspective. Managers are viewed as
crucial mediators of stakeholder influence; how they identify, define
and construct stakeholders is an important feature of the meaning of g
reening, and an industry's subsequent response. A qualitative study of
managers in four UK industries - supermarkets, automotives, power and
chemicals - is reported. The effect of a small number of stakehoIders
- campaigners and regulators is examined in some detail, distinguishe
d differentially according to their perceived legitimacy and the threa
t they pose to industry. Also examined is the large group of tradition
ally powerful stakehoIders - customers, creditors and employees - who
fail markedly to impact on industry's greening. The implications of th
e findings for pro-environmental change and stakeholder theory are dis
cussed.