An interdisciplinary approach to understanding 'stakeholders'

Stakeholders coordinate their actions to accomplish major initiatives, but each stakeholder understands and approaches these initiatives differently, which can often lead to challenges and conflict. This research looks at stakeholder coordination in public-private arrangements and identifies five related disciplines (strategic management, business ethics, public administration, planning, and project management), each representing perspectives of different organizational types. Using a structured literature review of 1,107 articles taken from top peer-reviewed journal publications of the five disciplines, we analyze each disciplinary perspective with respect to stakeholders. We illustrate the rise in research regarding stakeholders over the last 30 years and identify different organization frames, core values, and orientation towards other stakeholder networks, which motivate stakeholders’ actions. We argue for academics to understand how to link these foundational frames across organizational types, and suggest practitioners seek coordination between stakeholders by going beyond stakeholders’ stated objectives and aligning stakeholder values.