Title: Stakeholder theory as an arch to manage successful legitimacy strategies

Authors: Gehan A. Mousa

Addresses: Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract: Literature on corporate social responsibility has sought to provide explanations for corporate decisions to disclose information in annual reports. A number of studies have been conducted to identify the motivations for corporate social disclosure by using a number of social theories and not the reactions of the users of this information. However, there is a lack of research into managing legitimacy strategies. The understanding of the nature of legitimating strategies and knowing the role that stakeholders can play to influence these strategies might benefit greatly on increasing the effectiveness of these strategies across social locations and through time. The paper is mainly concerned with: a) bringing some coherence to the methodology of stakeholder theory and corporate strategies; b) explaining the role of stakeholder theory in managing legitimacy strategies effectively.

Keywords: stakeholder theory; legitimacy strategies; corporate social disclosure; corporate strategy; corporate social responsibility; CSR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCA.2010.036178

International Journal of Critical Accounting, 2010 Vol.2 No.4, pp.399 - 418

Published online: 27 Oct 2010 *

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