Abstract: This paper develops a resource-based theory of competitive advantage on the basis of a stakeholder view of the firm. This is done by going back to first principles. The paper adopts the framework of cooperative game theory, but does not see the firm as a vehicle to advance shareholder interests, but as a solution to the team production problem that primary stakeholders face when engaging in joint value creation. Three questions are answered: How is value created? What is the role of the firm in value creation? How is value appropriated? The answers to these questions ground a discussion of how value creation and value appropriation relate to competitive advantage, resulting in the specification of six mechanisms that drive payments to stakeholders.

Abstract: Since Ghoshal’s (2005) seminal paper “Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices” we have experienced many more cases in which firms have destroyed values for all kinds of stakeholders by acting on the basis of pessimistic assumptions about people and institutions induced by current management theories (e.g. self interest, opportunistic behavior). Not only stakeholders in the market like shareholders or customers are affected by such harm, but also social stakeholders such as communities or advocacy groups representing social or ecological issues (e.g. human rights, access to innovative medicine, labor conditions, or climate change). To avoid such pessimistic assumptions about people and institutions, we propose in this paper a humanistic perspective as the normative core for firms’ value creation, which challenges the understanding and role of the firm by serving social welfare

Abstract: Drawing from research on stakeholder management and person-environment fit, we develop the concept of stakeholder fit to explain the presence of mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its stakeholders. We highlight the important role of supplementary stakeholder fit, which focuses on the congruence of values between an organization and a stakeholder, and the role of complementary stakeholder fit, which focuses on the congruence of strategic needs and resources. Based on these types of fit we develop a typology of organization-stakeholder relationships and explain the types of value and conditions created by each relationship. We end by considering how misfit on the various dimensions may lead to negative relationships and instances of relational conflict.

Abstract: Reciprocal stakeholder behavior consists of cooperative and of punitive stakeholder behavior. Scholars investigating reciprocity acknowledge that fair firm practices increase cooperative stakeholder behavior while unfair firm practices increase punitive stakeholder behavior. However, some corporate strategies seem to attract and motivate both cooperative and punitive stakeholders. This constitutes a puzzle for stakeholder theory. In this paper we explain why and when this phenomenon is likely to manifest itself. We argue that firms communicating other-regarding motives to their stakeholders will attract and motivate cooperative and punitive stakeholders, more so than firms communicating self-regarding motives to their stakeholders. However, while firms with a long-term stakeholder strategy will attract and motivate cooperative stakeholders, this does not always hold for punitive stakeholders.