<P> A stakeholder in a corporation , as defined in its first usage in a 1983 internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute , is a member of the `` groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist '' . The theory was later developed and championed by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s . Since then it has gained wide acceptance in business practice and in theorizing relating to strategic management , corporate governance , business purpose and corporate social responsibility ( CSR ) . A corporate stakeholder can affect or be affected by the actions of a business as a whole . Whereas shareholders are often the party with the most direct and obvious interest at stake in business decisions , they are one of various subsets of stakeholders , as customers and employees also have stakes in the outcome . In the most developed sense of stakeholders in terms of real corporate responsibility , the bearers of externalities are included in stakeholdership . </P>
<P> A stakeholder in a corporation , as defined in its first usage in a 1983 internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute , is a member of the `` groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist '' . The theory was later developed and championed by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s . Since then it has gained wide acceptance in business practice and in theorizing relating to strategic management , corporate governance , business purpose and corporate social responsibility ( CSR ) . A corporate stakeholder can affect or be affected by the actions of a business as a whole . Whereas shareholders are often the party with the most direct and obvious interest at stake in business decisions , they are one of various subsets of stakeholders , as customers and employees also have stakes in the outcome . In the most developed sense of stakeholders in terms of real corporate responsibility , the bearers of externalities are included in stakeholdership . </P>
who makes up the stakeholders in a business
who makes up the stakeholders in a business
is a member of the `` groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist ''
is a member of the `` groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist ''