Open AccessStakeholder theory and the knowledge problem: A Hayekian perspective
Author(s) -
Valentinov Vladislav
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
business ethics, the environment & responsibility
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2694-6424
pISSN - 2694-6416
DOI - 10.1111/beer.12383
Subject(s) - stakeholder , perspective (graphical) , stakeholder theory , argument (complex analysis) , planner , business , knowledge management , stakeholder analysis , sociology , political science , public relations , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , artificial intelligence , programming language
This paper explores the potential for stakeholder theory to illuminate what F.A. Hayek called “the knowledge problem”, pertaining to how a society manages to utilize “knowledge not given to anyone in its totality”. According to Hayek, this problem is addressed by the price system, which induces economic actors to harness local and dispersed pieces of knowledge that would not be available to a central planner. The present paper argues that the growing turbulence in the business environment, as pointed out by stakeholder theorists, poses a challenge to the ability of corporate managers to harness local knowledge. Stakeholder theory is shown to imply that, in a turbulent environment, managers’ ability to do so is increasingly dependent on their access to the knowledge held by corporate stakeholders. This argument suggests that the building of stakeholder relationships is a crucial institutional solution to the knowledge problem.