Stakeholder Theory Through the Lenses of Catholic Social Thought

Jose Luis Retolaza (), Ricardo Aguado () and Leire Alcaniz ()
Additional contact information
Jose Luis Retolaza: University of Deusto
Ricardo Aguado: University of Deusto
Leire Alcaniz: University of Deusto

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 157, issue 4, No 6, 969-980

Abstract: Abstract Beyond different starting points, stakeholder theory (ST) and Catholic Social Thought (CST) share many compatible perspectives when analyzing the role of the firm in economic activity, especially regarding the attention of the firm to different social and economic actors. Additionally, ST bears limitations regarding its ethical and anthropological foundation, and also about the legitimation of the different stakeholders’ interests. Therefore, ST lacks clear criteria to solve possible conflicts of interest between stakeholders. This paper analyzes the potentiality of ST, widely accepted in corporate management, to integrate CST principles in order to solve those conflicts. At the same time, the paper studies the possibility of finding in the principles of CST an anthropological and ethical foundation for ST. This foundation could be the source of criteria to discuss the levels of legitimation and prioritization between stakeholders´ interests, especially when those interests collide.

Keywords: Stakeholder theory; Catholic Social Thought; Theory of the firm; Purpose of the firm; Spirituality; Religion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-3963-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:157:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-018-3963-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-3963-6

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().