when a company goes over the allowable limit of carbon emissions for example the town in which it is located is considered an external stakeholder because its residents may be harmed by the increased pollution 
external stakeholders in some cases can have a direct effect on a company the federal government for example is an external stakeholder a policy change on carbon emissions affects the operations of any business that burns a significant amount of fossil fuel issues concerning stakeholdersa common problem is that the interests of various stakeholders may not align in fact they may be in direct conflict for example the primary goal of a corporation from the perspective of its shareholders is often considered to be the maximization of profits to enhance shareholder value since labor costs are unavoidable for most companies a company may seek to keep these costs under tight control this is likely to upset another group of stakeholders its employees the most efficient companies successfully manage the interests and expectations of all their stakeholders it is a widely held myth that public corporations have a legal mandate to maximize shareholder wealth in fact there have been several legal rulings including by the supreme court clearly stating that u s companies need not adhere to shareholder value maximization 1stakeholders vs shareholdersshareholders are only one type of stakeholder all stakeholders are bound to a company by some type of vested interest usually for the long term a shareholder has a financial interest but shareholders can sell their stock they do not necessarily have a long term need for the company and can usually get out at any time and reduce their losses others cannot the vendors in a company s supply chain might suffer if the company limits production and reduces or eliminates its services employees of the company might lose their jobs 