STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS
Special Issue for the Brazilian Review of Business Management
Guest Editors:
R. Edward Freeman, University of Virginia USA
Jeffrey S. Harrison, University of Richmond USA
Monica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil
Stakeholder theory offers a broad perspective on the business organization and its value creation system. This perspective provides a useful way to understand and manage a business world that has become increasingly turbulent and complex, with a high level of interconnectedness among companies within countries and across international borders. It also has a strong moral foundation because it advocates for fair, honest, and even generous treatment of a broad group of organizational stakeholders, to include employees, customers, suppliers, financiers, communities and others. Stakeholder theory is about effective management of organizations, and not about social responsibility; however, firms that promote a stakeholder perspective tend to be considered socially responsible because of the responsible way they treat their stakeholders.
To date, much of the research on stakeholder theory has focused on firms in North America and to some extent Europe, where the theory has become increasingly popular among managers and organizational researchers. This special issue is devoted primarily to applications of the theory in other contexts. We are interested in the extent to which the central ideas associated with stakeholder theory have been adopted by firms in countries that have not already been actively studied by researchers. Especially welcome are stakeholder-based studies that compare companies that are headquartered in different countries or that have operations in multiple countries. We also welcome papers that examine firms that operate primarily within one country, especially if it is a country that has not been the subject of research in the past. Case studies and multiple case studies are encouraged. Field research and theory driven empirical work is welcome, as are pure theoretical papers. A few of many possible questions that might be addressed are:
1. How are the central concepts of stakeholder theory applied by firms in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa?
2. Are there differences across countries? If so, why are there differences? What are the fundamental economic, social, or political factors that have created these differences?
3. How could the central concepts of stakeholder theory be applied to a variety of international contexts? How can these concepts help firms resolve some of the major issues they are facing?
4. Does a stakeholder-based management philosophy lead to creation of more value?
5. How can firm performance be measured across multiple stakeholders?
6. Do various stakeholder management strategies influence firm performance?
Submissions for this special issue must be in English and are due on August 31, 2014.
