THE STAKEHOLDER THEORY OF THE CORPORATION - CONCEPTS, EVIDENCE, AND IMPLICATIONS

The stakeholder theory has been advanced and justified in the manageme nt literature on the basis of its descriptive accuracy, instrumental p ower, and normative validity. These three aspects of the theory, altho ugh interrelated, are quite distinct; they involve different types of evidence and argument and have different implications. In this article , we examine these three aspects of the theory and critique and integr ate important contributions to the literature related to each. We conc lude that the three aspects of stakeholder theory are mutually support ive and that the normative base of the theory-which includes the moder n theory of property rights-is fundamental.