Shareholders vs. Stakeholders - what's the difference?

 shareholder vs  stakeholder concept
A shareholder owns part of a company through stock ownership

Video - The Shareholders vs. Stakeholders Debate

In this video Edward Freeman discusses the debate that is often framed as 'shareholders versus stakeholders'. He points out that the perceived differences between a Shareholder view of the firm and a Stakeholder view are not as large as often perceived. That is because Stakeholder Theory is a theory about business, because community and civil society is central to business.

Transcript of video - shareholders versus stakeholders

In lots of places we see this debate as between Milton Friedman who is seen as the advocate of maximizing projects for shareholders and stakeholder theorists are seen as taking care of stakeholders.

And so this Friedman - sometimes it me – vs Freeman debate gets posed in all the business ethics textbooks and classrooms etc.

I actually think if Milton Friedman were alive today I think he would be a stakeholder theorist. I think he would understand that the only way to create value for shareholders in today’s world is to pay attention to customers, suppliers, employees, communities and shareholders at the same time.

What Friedman was against was the idea of ‘social responsibility doesn’t have anything to do with business’. I am against that too - I think stakeholder theory is a theory about business, but community and civil society is absolutely central to business. We need Corporate Stakeholder Responsibility. If we have that there is no conflict between shareholders and stakeholders.

References and further reading

Shareholders vs. Stakeholders -- Friedman vs. Freeman Debate - R. Edward Freeman, Youtube video

Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics corporateethics Youtube channel

Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics

MacEachern, A., 2016. What is the difference between a shareholder and a stakeholder? Investopedia LLC, 2016, Available at: [Accessed 04 February 2016].

Stakeholder Management Templates
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