Stakeholder Theory as a Basis for Capitalism

For the past 25 years, a group of scholars has developed the idea that a business has stakeholders - that is, there are groups and individuals who have a stake in the success or failure of the business. There are many different ways to understand this concept, and there is a burgeoning area of academic research in both business and applied ethics on so-called ‘stakeholder theory’. This literature seems to represent an abrupt departure from the usual understanding of business as a vehicle to maximize returns to the owners of capital. This more mainstream view, call it ‘shareholder capitalism’, or ‘the standard account’, has come under much recent criticism, and the ‘stakeholder view’ is often put forward as an alternative.