Placing Stakeholder Theory within the Debate on Corporate Social Responsibility

In this chapter, we examine the stakeholder theory and what it means for corporate social responsibility (CSR) research and practices. First, our work points some theoretical and conceptual weakness. Then we emphasize the entrenchment of the stakeholder theory in the contractualism: According to Rawls (1971: 60), the firm is viewed as a “nexus of contracts between resource holders (stakeholders).” Our work on the CSR has to take into account, without exception, all the stakeholders without considering the simple presentation of a vague idea on the progress for the society, which would result from the invisible hand. In the line of transactions costs theory, its philosophical foundations are inspired from social theories of social contract and justice as fairness. Afterward, we show that these conceptual problems, from contractualist entrenchment, raise some sociopolitical implications. CSR based on designs inspired by the stakeholder theory may lead to an expanded liberalism, voluntarism in terms of CSR and ultimately limited to a moralization of unfettered capitalism.