IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v21y2011i02p235-255_01.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Salience in Family Firms1

Author

Listed:
  • Mitchell, Ronald K.
  • Agle, Bradley R.
  • Chrisman, James J.
  • Spence, Laura J.

Abstract

The notion of stakeholder salience based on attributes (e.g., power, legitimacy, urgency) is applied in the family business setting. We argue that where principal institutions intersect (i.e., family and business); managerial perceptions of stakeholder salience will be different and more complex than where institutions are based on a single dominant logic. We propose that (1) whereas utilitarian power is more likely in the general business case, normative power is more typical in family business stakeholder salience; (2) whereas in a general business context legitimacy is socially constructed; for family stakeholders, legitimacy is based on heredity; and (3) whereas temporality and criticality are somewhat independent in general-business urgency, they are linked in the family business case because of family ties and family-centered non-economic goals. We apply this theoretical framework to position and integrate the contributions to this special section of Business Ethics Quarterly on “Stakeholder Theory, Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Family Enterprise.”

Suggested Citation

  • Mitchell, Ronald K. & Agle, Bradley R. & Chrisman, James J. & Spence, Laura J., 2011. "Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Salience in Family Firms1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 235-255, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:21:y:2011:i:02:p:235-255_01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X0001040X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pollack, Jeffrey M. & Barr, Steve & Hanson, Sheila, 2017. "New venture creation as establishing stakeholder relationships: A trust-based perspective," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 15-20.
    2. Campopiano, Giovanna & De Massis, Alfredo & Rinaldi, Francesca Romana & Sciascia, Salvatore, 2017. "Women’s involvement in family firms: Progress and challenges for future research," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 200-212.
    3. Van Gils, Anita & Huybrechts, Jolien & Minola, Tommaso & Cassia, Lucio, 2019. "Unraveling the impact of family antecedents on family firm image: A serial multiple-mediation model," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 17-27.
    4. Madden, Laura & McMillan, Amy & Harris, Oneil, 2020. "Drivers of selectivity in family firms: Understanding the impact of age and ownership on CSR," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(2).
    5. Gerrit de Wit & Lorraine Uhlaner & Marta Berent-Braun & Ronald Jeurissen, 2011. "Beyond Size: Predicting engagement in environmental management practices of Dutch SMEs," Scales Research Reports H201118, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    6. Randerson, Kathleen, 2022. "Conceptualizing family business social responsibility," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    7. Rodriguez Serna, Lil & Nakandala, Dilupa & Bowyer, Dorothea, 2022. "Stakeholder identification and prioritization: The attribute of dependency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 444-455.
    8. Mitchell, J. Robert & Israelsen, Trevor L. & Mitchell, Ronald K. & Lim, Dominic S.K., 2021. "Stakeholder identification as entrepreneurial action: The social process of stakeholder enrollment in new venture emergence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    9. Querbach, Stephanie & Waldkirch, Matthias & Kammerlander, Nadine, 2022. "Benefitting from benefits—A comparison of employee satisfaction in family and non-family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2).
    10. Nurten Dede & Evren Ayranci, 2014. "Exploring the connections among spiritual leadership, altruism, and trust in family businesses," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3373-3400, November.
    11. Cox, Kevin C. & Lortie, Jason & Marshall, David R. & Kidwell, Roland E., 2022. "Beyond the balance Sheet: The effects of family influence on social performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 318-330.
    12. Schembri, Joe & Tang, Yee Kwan & Fletcher, Margaret & Dimitratos, Pavlos, 2019. "How do European trade promotion organisations manage their stakeholders?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1-1.
    13. Meier, Olivier & Schier, Guillaume, 2022. "Lone founders, family founders, and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 149-160.
    14. De Massis, Alfredo & Kotlar, Josip, 2014. "The case study method in family business research: Guidelines for qualitative scholarship," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 15-29.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:21:y:2011:i:02:p:235-255_01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.