TOWARD A THEORY OF STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION AND SALIENCE - DEFININGTHE PRINCIPLE OF WHO AND WHAT REALLY COUNTS

Stakeholder theory hers been a: popular heuristic for describing the m anagement environment for years, but it has not attained full theoreti cal status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of st akeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a: typology of sta keholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the f irm and research and management implications.