Abstract:

Reflecting the high complexity, diversity and uncertainty of business and economic conditions, and acknowledging the trend of boundaryless organisations and economic-social systems, we have to move from stakeholder management to stakeholder accountability to let us operate in the turbulent, chaotic environment of the Anthropocene.

There seems to be no doubt that managing stakeholders strategically is the means for increasing the likelihood of achieving the goals of an organisation, including competitive advantage and financial results, and in general enhancing an organisation’s value and long-term viability. Stakeholder management, together with its underlying concepts such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), contributes to increasing this viability of an organisation’s system, as well as of the system of its environment (including economies and societies). This is of crucial importance in times of crises, such as natural distress, political unrest and pandemics, when a system’s viability is particularly put to the test.

Based on an extensive literature review the paper shows that the interests of shareholders and stakeholders can merge through notions of social responsibility and sustainability. This observation can be of high interest to both scholars, educators and practitioners, and contributes to their better understanding of diversified expectations and issues affecting stakeholders across markets, industries, economies and societies, allowing different organisations to act more adaptively and thus accountably towards the more sustainable future.