2002/03/01 by Pursey P.M.A.R. Heugens, Pursey Heugens, Frans A. J. Van Den Bosch +3 · 133 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · #Business #Competitive advantage #Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting #Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences #Knowledge management #Legitimacy #Management and Organizational Studies #Marketing #Political science #Public relations #Stakeholder #Stakeholder analysis #Stakeholder theory
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/000765030204100104
published in Business & Society 41(1), 36-60 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2002/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
This study examines the central contention of instrumental stakeholder theory— namely, that firms that breed trust-based, cooperative ties with their stakeholders will have a competitive advantage over firms that do not. Acase study of the introduction ofgenetically modified food products in the Netherlands provided the basis for the empirical analysis. The results support the instrumental stakeholder management thesis, showing that stakeholder integration, through the development ofmutually enforcing relationships with external parties, may result in both organizational learning and societal legitimacy.