Is the stakeholder notion a driving force?

Do corporate executives really worry about corporate legitimacy? Writers assert that tho' the profit motive remains

• there is growing realisation that board responsibilities should not be limited to shareholders' interests.
• many boards now speak of balancing the interests of various constituency groups and the whole community.

Dahl asserts
'every large corporation should be thought of as a social enterprise, that is, as an entity whose existence and decisions can be justified only insofar as they serve public or social purposes'

Hosmer (1994) states
"trust, commitment and effort on the part of all stakeholders of a firm is essential to competitive success, because an 'integrity of common purpose will produce co-operative actions and help the innovation process".

• Levels of social activism have increased (true?)
• More agencies today promote social activism (true?) e.g.
• Business in the Community
• the Per Cent Club
• the Action Resource Centre

Assignment
Beyond this empirical evidence to substantiate the assertions is thin. What evidence is there and how might we gather more evidence of substance?

Stakeholders as Constituents OHP 15