Since man began to learn the art of business, he started understanding the importance of judicious application and efficient utilization of resources of land, labor, capital, information, knowledge and wisdom. The business world saw the advent of individualism and consumerism after post war development through the dominance of market forces leading to socio-economic instability. This has led to the discussion on stakeholders relationships in business.
2.1 Who is a Stakeholder?
In the language of business, Stakeholders are defined as individuals or groups who are affected by a corporate decision or action in a positive or a negative way, establish exchange relationships by supplying an entity with critical resources and expect realization of its interests in return. Freeman (1984) states stakeholder as ‘any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the organization’s purpose, because that group may prevent our accomplishment.’ Eden and Ackerman (1998) write that stakeholder is ‘people or a small group with power to respond to, negotiate with and change the strategic future of the organization.’