Stakeholder Orientation and Stakeholder Marketing

Stakeholder Orientation

Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell (2013) stated that, “The degree to which a firm understands and addresses stakeholder demands can be referred to as stakeholder orientation” (p. 35).  According to Duesing (2009), one of the primary management theories is the Stakeholder Orientation (SO).  

  Ansoff (1965) initially discussed SO in terms of “balancing the conflicting claims of the various ‘stakeholders’ in the firm: managers, workers, stockholders, suppliers, vendors. The firm has a responsibility to all of these and must configure its objectives so as to give each a measure of satisfaction” as cited in Duesing.

Multiple authors have added to this definition to include the community and environment (Berman et al., 1999) to competitors and other industries (Greenley & Foxall, 1997) as cited in Duesing. Duesing (2009) posits that literature has previously stated that SO positively affects organizational performance.  The results of Duesing’s study showed that of all the stakeholders the ones with the strongest affect on organizational performance were employees and customers.

Stakeholder Marketing

Stakeholder marketing takes into consideration that the market is more than a unique niche.  The customers are not standalone islands, but are vastly interconnected with government, other vendors, their community, and all of these affect the decisions that the consumers will make (Hosfeld, 2013).

Stakeholder marketing is an important part of embracing a systems perspective because it engages with the marketplace as such a dynamic system. It can also reflect the intention to create social good, depending on the degree of mutuality to which the company aspires (Hosfeld, 2013).

In this global and innovative marketplace, we must consider all ethical factors in place , when establishing a stakeholder marketing strategy.  Listed below in Table 1 are Forbe’s Top Ten Corporate Citizens that have the highest standards of ethical behavior when considering all of their stakeholders.

Table 1

Forbe’s Top Ten Corporate Citizens

Number	Organization
1	Bristol – Myers Squibb
2	IBM
3	Microsoft
4	Intel
5	Johnson Controls
6	Accenture
7	Spectra Energy
8	Campbell’s
9	Nike
10	Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold

Author: Dr. Andree Swanson

References

Duesing, R. (2009). Stakeholder orientation and its impact on performance in small businesses. Doctoral dissertation. Retrieved from http://udini.proquest.com/view/stakeholder-orientation-and-its-pqid:1876290581/

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2013). Business ethics & social responsibility. [OMM640 Custom edition] Mason, OH: Cengage Learning .

Hosfeld, K. (2013). Stakeholder marketing: Building trust and loyalty in cynical market. Hosfeld and Associates. Retrieved from http://blog.hosfeld.com/trust/stakeholder-marketingbuilding-trust-and-loyalty-in-a-cynical-market/