The Stakeholder View of Strategy (SHV): A Comprehensive Approach to Harmonize Public and Entrepreneurial Interaction

The meaning of firm’s role as a societal institution has gained increasing relevance as a result of globalization. Corporations have begun to manage the globalization processes, while political systems are still primarily oriented towards the idea of the nation state. The main duty of the nation states is to regulate and coordinate social issues within the framework of national boundaries; as their sphere of influence is limited to national boundaries they only limitedly engage in developing and realizing solutions for global problems. This gap is filled at least partially on the one hand by NGOs and supranational institutions like the UN. On the other hand, also the globally active multinational corporations are being increasingly challenged in their societal function. In the same vein Stiglitz (2006) claims for a reorientation of firms’ role in society in his new book on globalization: “One step in the right direction (note of the author: to improve corporate governance) would be to have companies take into account all stakeholders – employees and the communities in which they operate, not just their shareholders