Stakeholder theory and ethics

Abstract

With its normative underpinnings, stakeholder theory can be thought of as a philosophy of corporate or business ethics. Indeed, if we go back to its Scandinavian origins, to Rhenman and others in the 1960s, we find that the concept of the stakeholder has been subject to a constellation of normative and ethical questions. During this period, the idea developed that the notion of the stakeholder should be used to democratize business ethics, as the foundation stone of a more just and responsible corporate world. In the same way, the interest in corporate social responsibility mirrored the vision of the German unions of 1970–1980, with stakeholders participating in the management of the firm. Basically, business ethics has always been linked to the philosophy of stakeholder theory.