Tensions in Stakeholder Theory Freeman, R. Edward; Phillips, Robert; Sisodia, Rajendra
Business & society,
02/2020, Letnik:
59, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A number of tensions have been suggested between stakeholder theory and strategic management (SM). Following a brief review of the histories of stakeholder theory and mainstream SM, we argue that ...many of the tensions are more apparent than real, representing different narratives about stakeholder theory, SM, business, and ethics. Part of the difference in these two theoretical positions is due to the fact that they seek to solve different problems. However, we suggest how there are areas of overlap, and we argue that some of the tensions may, instead, provide interesting ways to put the two areas of scholarship and practice together. We maintain that SM and stakeholder theory could mutually benefit from a more pragmatist philosophy.
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•Using consciousness can create a more engaging and meaningful customer experience.•Foundation of consciousness based on four tenants (Mackey and Sisodia 2014).•Purpose and values, ...leadership and corporate culture, and stakeholder integration.•Hierarchy of engagement delineates three levels of engagement.•Customer experience, emotional connection, and a shared identity.
Firms and academics recognize the importance of creating an engaged customer base, though an in-depth understanding of how to achieve it is limited. This article proposes that firms that use consciousness as a foundational philosophy can create a more engaging and meaningful customer experience. A retailer or service provider with foundations in consciousness has a higher purpose and values that get espoused and fulfilled throughout the organization, working in a way to optimize benefits to its multiple stakeholders (investors, employees, customers, suppliers, the environment, the community). Building on these foundations, retailers can achieve deeper engagement with customers, deliver outstanding customer experiences, create emotional connections with customers, and establish a shared identity based on a clear purpose and values.
Drawing on previous research in pricing, we propose three broad antecedents to perceptions of price unfairness. Consumers perceive price unfairness when (1) they feel that the firm is making ...excessive profits, (2) they are not able to understand the pricing structure applied, and (3) they sense the firm is acting in an immoral or unethical manner. Survey data were collected from 969 consumers to understand their perceptions of price unfairness. In the survey, respondents were asked to provide their perceptions of pricing practices for fifteen products or services. A content analysis of consumers' comments confirms a wide array of drivers of price unfairness discussed by researchers and uncovers a few under-researched antecedents.
This note responds to Chong Wangs article, “Conscious Capitalism Firms: Do They Behave as Their Proponents Say?” (in this issue of California Management Review) that sets out to test certain ...conjectures regarding the financial performance and the drivers of that performance for so-called “conscious capitalism” firms. It provides an update of our current thinking on the drivers of performance and describes the kind of analysis that is needed to better understand these drivers. It also presents a set of hypotheses that need to be tested by future research.
Entering the 21st Century, the marketing function remains concerned with serving customers and consumers effectively. A study proposes that just as the marketing function gradually shifted from mass ...marketing to segmented marketing in the 20th Century, it will increasingly move toward customer-centric marketing in the next century. In the practice of customer-centric marketing, the marketing function seeks to fulfill the needs and wants of each individual customer. The antecedents of customer-centric marketing are the increasing pressure on firms to improve marketing productivity, increasing market diversity in household and business markets, and technology applicability. On the basis of the shift toward customer-centric marketing, the authors of the study expect increased importance of marketing as a "supply management" function, customer outsourcing, cocreation marketing, fixed-cost marketing, and customer-centric organizations.
Many marketers fear that the field's time-worn principles are losing touch with today's realities. "Does Marketing Need Reform?" collects the insights of a select group of leading marketing thinkers ...and practitioners who are committed to restoring marketing's timeless values. The book sets the agenda for a new generation of marketing principles. As the editors note in their introduction; "Marketing is a powerful force backed up by huge resources. It must be entrusted only to those with the wisdom to use it well." The contributors seek to understand and explain how and why marketing has veered significantly off course in order to steer it back in the right direction. The concepts and perspectives presented in this book will inspire a renewed commitment to the highest ideals of marketing - serving customers individually and society as a whole by synergistically aligning company, customer, and social interests.
1. Introduction: Does Marketing Need Reform? Jagdish N. Sheth and Rajendra S. Sisodia; Part 1. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Marketing's Image, Excess, and Resistance Problems; 2. Coming to Concurrence: Improving Marketing Productivity by Reengaging Resistant Consumers, J. Walker Smith; 3. The Image of Marketing, Jagdish N. Sheth, Rajendra S. Sisodia, and Adina Barbulescu; 4. Why Marketing Needs Reform, Johny K. Johansson; 5. Marketing Reform: The Case of Excessive Buying, Naresh K. Malhotra, Lan Wu, and Fred C. Allvine; Part 2. Are Marketing's Problems Self-Correcting?; 6. Does Reform Need Reform? Steven Brown; 7. The Morality of Markets, Marketing, and the Corporate Purpose, Debra Jones Ringold; 8. On Reforming Marketing: For Marketing Systems and Brand Equity Strategy, Shelby D. Hunt; 9. Does Marketing Need Reform? Personal Reflections, Russell S. Winer; 10. Reform, Reclamation, or Improvement: Reinventing Marketing, David W. Stewart; Part 3. Rethinking Marketing's Sacred Cows; 11. Challenging the Mental Models of Marketing, Yoram (Jerry) Wind; 12. Whither "Marketing"? Commentary on the AMA's New Definition of Marketing, Gregory T. Gundlach; 13. Interaction Orientation: The New Marketing Competency, V. Kumar and Girish Ramani; 14. Customer Advocacy: The Start of a New Paradigm in Marketing? Glen L. Urban; 15. Does Marketing Need to Transcend Modernism? A. Faut Firat and Nikhilesh Dholakia; 16. From Marketing to the Market: A Call for Paradigm Shift, Alladi Venkatesh and Lisa Penaloza; Part 4. Adjusting to Marketing's Changing Context; 17. Ethical Lapses of Marketers, Philip Kotler; 18. The Price Is Unfair! Reforming Pricing Management, Kent B. Monroe and Lan Xia; 19. Marketing to the New Customer Majority, David Wolfe; 20. Questions Marketers Need to Answer, Tim Ambler; 21. Marketing's Final Frontier: The Automation of Consumption, Jagdish N. Sheth and Rajendra S. Sisodia; 22. The Marketing-IT Paradox: Interactions from the Customer's Perspective, Pierre Berthon and Joby John; Part 5. Marketing and Its Stakeholders; 23. Making Marketing Accountable: A Broader View, Katherine N. Lemon and Kathleen Seiders; 24. Out of Sight and Out of Our Mind: What of Those Left Behind by Globalism? Russell Belk; 25. Expanding the Perspective: Making U.S. Marketing Relevant for the New World Order, Susan P. Douglas and C. Samuel Craig; 26. What Can Industrializing Countries Do to Avoid the Need for Marketing Reform? Kerry Chipp, Scott Hoenig, and Deon Nel; 27. Leveraging Marketing's Influence in Team and Group Settings, Anne Stringfellow and Sandy Jap; Part 6. Academia, Heal Thyself: Reforming Marketing Scholarship and Education; 28. The World of Marketing Thought: Where Are We Heading? William L. Wilkie; 29. Marketing: A Tale of Two Cities, Gary L. Lilien; 30. Marketing or Marketers: What or Who Needs Reforming? Rajiv Grover; 31. Revitalizing the Role of Marketing in Business Organizations: What Can Poor Academics Do to Help? Jagmohan S. Raju; 32. Does Marketing Need Reform School? Morris B. Holbrook; 33. Musings on the Need for Reform in Marketing, Rajan Varadarajan; Part 7. A New Mission for Marketing; 34. Marketing: A Perpetual Work in Progress, Frederick E. Webster, Jr.; 35. Recapturing Marketing's Mission, Leonard L. Berry and Ann M. Mirabito; 36. Holistic Marketing: A Broad, Integrated Perspective to Marketing Management, Kevin Lane Keller and Philip Kotler; 37. Back to the Future: Putting the People Back in Marketing, Steve J. Grove, Joby John, and Raymond P. Fisk; 38. Marketing Reform: A Meta-Analytic, Best Practice Frame for Using Marketing Metrics Effectively, John U. Farley and Praveen K. Kopalle; 39. Designing a Business from the Customer Back, Steven Haeckel; 40. How to Reform Marketing, Jagdish N. Sheth and Rajendra S. Sisodia; About the Editors and Contributors; Name Index; * Subject Index.
Marketing's fundamental problem today is low productivity and lack of accountability. This paper suggests two ways to improve marketing productivity. First, marketing must shift its focus from ...aggregate markets to individual customers. Second, the marketing function should be treated more like the production function as investment in brands and distribution to be amortized over time rather than expensed annually.
This note responds to Chong Wang's article, “Conscious Capitalism Firms: Do They Behave as Their Proponents Say?” (in this issue of California Management Review) that sets out to test certain ...conjectures regarding the financial performance and the drivers of that performance for so-called “conscious capitalism” firms. It provides an update of our current thinking on the drivers of performance and describes the kind of analysis that is needed to better understand these drivers. It also presents a set of hypotheses that need to be tested by future research.
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