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For a Unified Stakeholder Management Science: How Computational Ontologies Can Mend a Broken Theory

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Cristina NeeshamORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

This research explores how stakeholder scholarship can evolve into a puzzle-solving tool, akin to more advanced scientific fields. Only a unified stakeholder management science can address issues like firms that, despite the looming threat of climate disaster, prioritize profits over environmental concerns. Such unification, however, depends on a computational turn of mind outlined herein. Stakeholder scholarship has failed to progress toward this end, because stakeholder theory has fallen short of shedding light on the inner workings of the firm in search of the mechanisms that govern its relations with stakeholders, instead lingering over the outermost parts of the social phenomena where stakeholder macro dynamics are obvious. This lays open several hurdles that must be overcome for stakeholder scholarship to become a puzzle-solving tool at the service of the environment and society. Thus, a computational fix may be within reach in the next few decades if the following five steps, elaborated upon herein, guide the transition: 1) probe firm-level mechanisms, 2) focus on qualitative institutional data, 3) adopt computational language to reduce ambiguities, 4) develop algorithms for how activities discharge powers or capacities to fulfill functions, and 5) break with peer-review silos that have made stakeholder theory self-referential.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Agafonow A, Neesham C, Perez M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Philosophy of Management

Year: 2025

Pages: epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 18/02/2025

Acceptance date: 14/01/2025

Date deposited: 08/03/2025

ISSN (print): 1740-3812

ISSN (electronic): 2052-9597

Publisher: Springer Nature

URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-025-00334-6

DOI: 10.1007/s40926-025-00334-6


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