Advocates of stakeholder theory have long known that grasping its key insights requires a specific worldview that is, unfortunately, still not prevalent within the community of strategic management scholars. We argue that this worldview encompasses a process ontology that is radically different from the substance-ontological outlook typical of the mainstream approaches to strategic management. The unquestioned commitment of strategic management scholarship to a substance ontology leads to the viewing of corporations as macro-entities comprising aggregations of discrete autonomous actors each relying on individual choice and instrumental rationality. In contrast, within a process-ontological worldview, corporations and their stakeholders are seen to be sustained and attenuated through social practices and relationships involving interlocking chains of coping actions taken in everyday interactions. We show that adopting a process-ontological worldview presents a much-needed step that may help strategic management scholars reach a better understanding of how stakeholder theory deals with three problems of today's capitalism, those value creation and trade, ethics of capitalism, and managerial mindsets. On this basis, we discuss how to process ontology may lead stakeholder theory to further refine its understanding of business strategy, corporate social responsibility, and the common ground between the firm and stakeholders.

中文翻译：

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利益相关者理论：过程本体论视角

利益相关者理论的倡导者早就知道，要掌握其关键见解，需要一种特定的世界观，不幸的是，这种世界观在战略管理学者社区中仍然不流行。我们认为，这种世界观包含的过程本体论与战略管理主流方法的典型实体本体论观点截然不同。战略管理学术对实体本体的毫无疑问的承诺导致将公司视为宏观实体，包括离散的自主行为者的集合，每个行为者依赖于个人选择和工具理性。相反，在过程本体论的世界观中，企业及其利益相关者被视为通过社会实践和关系得以维持和削弱，这些社会实践和关系涉及在日常互动中采取的相互关联的应对行动链。我们表明，采用过程本体论的世界观是一个急需的步骤，可以帮助战略管理学者更好地理解利益相关者理论如何处理当今资本主义的三个问题，即价值创造和贸易、资本主义伦理和管理心态. 在此基础上，我们讨论了如何处理本体可能会引导利益相关者理论进一步细化其对商业战略、企业社会责任以及公司与利益相关者之间的共同点的理解。我们表明，采用过程本体论的世界观是一个急需的步骤，可以帮助战略管理学者更好地理解利益相关者理论如何处理当今资本主义的三个问题，即价值创造和贸易、资本主义伦理和管理心态. 在此基础上，我们讨论了如何处理本体可能会引导利益相关者理论进一步细化其对商业战略、企业社会责任以及公司与利益相关者之间的共同点的理解。我们表明，采用过程本体论的世界观是一个急需的步骤，可以帮助战略管理学者更好地理解利益相关者理论如何处理当今资本主义的三个问题，即价值创造和贸易、资本主义伦理和管理心态. 在此基础上，我们讨论了如何处理本体可能会引导利益相关者理论进一步细化其对商业战略、企业社会责任以及公司与利益相关者之间的共同点的理解。