Humanizing Stakeholders by Rethinking Business.

ABSTRACT: Can business humanize its stakeholders? And if so, how does this relate to moral consideration for stakeholders? In this paper we compare two business orientations that are relevant for current business theory and practice: a stakeholder orientation and a profit orientation. We empirically investigate the causal relationships between business orientation, humanization, and moral consideration. We report the results of six experiments, making use of different operationalizations of a stakeholder and profit orientation, different stakeholders (employees, suppliers, labor unions), and different participant samples. Our findings support the prediction that individual stakeholders observing a stakeholder-oriented firm see the firm's other stakeholders as more human than individual stakeholders

SUBMITTER: Quintelier KJP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8493002 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature