This panel considered the uses of and prospects for the stakeholder theory/approach. After 20 years of popularity, the stakeholder concept has still notemerged as a true theory. However, it offers some unique perspectives on business organizations and there is plenty of room to develop stakeholder theory and research. These session notes are offered to further the scholarly discussion.

Over time, how does a company's corporate social performance (CSP) as reflected through different stakeholders' views of the company (corporate reputation or CR) vary between a financial stakeholder group and a customer stakeholder group? The purpose of this research is to extend our previous work in the area of CSP profiling. So far, we have only applied the method to two companies in each of three industries for one year. This paper will focus on extending the application to the five (...) to eight companies in each of nine leading industries across a three year time span. The results will provide a much deeper data base leading to more rigorous measurement and analysis of CSP. (shrink)