دانلود رایگان مقاله جهت گیری سهامدار متناسب با شرکت اروپایی

abstract

Stakeholder theory suggests firms should be sensitive to a broad group of stakeholders and their needs, with balanced trade-offs that are fundamental to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, and ultimately survival. Market orientation (MO) scholars also consistently call for inclusion of a broader group of stakeholders than the widely studied customer and competitor groups to better understand the impact of multiple stakeholders on firm performance. In response, this study expands the traditional domain of MO and defines overall stakeholder orientation as including customers, competitors, employees and shareholders, designating them as ‘core and essential stakeholders.’ Scholars have also advocated the inclusion of more forward-looking, proactive considerations in the conceptual framework to complement the usual responsive aspects of MO. Measures for both proactive and responsive orientations for the four core stakeholder groups, representing overall stakeholder orientation, were developed and validated. Findings show that for European firms proactive considerations are potentially more impactful than responsive, and overall stakeholder orientation is a significant predictor of improved financial and non-financial performance.

5. Discussion

and implications Together, an overall stakeholder orientation for European firms is associated with improved financial performance. This study provides empirical support for a European market conceptual framework consisting of proactive and responsive components forfour primary stakeholder orientations: customer, competitor, employee, and shareholder. Scholars have suggested that the framework should include proactive and responsive components (e.g., Ferrell et al., 2010; Harrison et al., 2010; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Narver & Slater, 1990; Narver et al., 2004), and this research demonstrated that approach is meaningful. Further, scholars have suggested that a balanced stakeholder approach to management will yield long-term profitability and corporate sustainability, at least to the extent that enhanced firm performance is a necessary prerequisite (Clarkson, 1995; Freeman et al., 2010; Harrison et al., 2010), and this research supports that concept for European firms in general, to the extent that the countries in the sample are representative of the broader European market. A balanced stakeholder approach with both responsive and proactive components is more likely to provide improved overall profits and satisfaction of key stakeholders, which suggests positive and sustainable relationships and improved performance. Moreover, the broader stakeholder focus may help prevent debacles seen in major banks and Volkswagen by reducing short-term bottom line priorities.