Strategy, stakeholders and managerial discretion

摘要

Theories of strategic organization (including stakeholder theory) would do well to remember the axiom that 'ought implies can'. Some extant strategy literature recognizes this axiom through reference to managerial discretion; other research streams, including nearly every stakeholder study, do not. Stakeholder theory does, however, more richly describe stakeholders' role in shaping managerial actions than the bulk of prior strategy research (including managerial discretion). Neither subset of strategy literature adequately addresses the dynamics of the relationship between these two constructs - managerial discretion and stakeholder behavior. This essay describes those dynamics through reference also to stakeholder orientation, and has implications for each of its predecessor literatures and others.