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This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for submitting to this special issue is December 1, 2016.

Call for Papers:   Special Issue of Business & Society

Stakeholder Theory at the Crossroads

Guest editors:  
Jay B. Barney, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah
Jeffrey S. Harrison, Robins School of Business, University of Richmond

A stakeholder perspective of the firm has existed in the modern business literature for almost half a Century. Although it has been used to guide both public policy and business decisions, there is no consensus about its general applicability.  Some hold the view that stakeholder theory has addressed most of its critical issues and can be used to inform business decision making, is being used to inform business decision making, and should be used to inform business decision making.  Others argue that, at the least, some important issues are not yet resolved, and that these issues limit its usefulness.  Still others believe that, even if all these issues were resolved, the general application of a stakeholder perspective would still not be a good thing.

All sides of this multi-dimensional debate already understand most of the arguments mustered by all those in opposition.  The purpose of this special issue is not to rehash old arguments.  Instead, we would like to attract papers that promote the building of a new common ground for what might be called "stakeholder theory" by addressing some critical tensions.  They include:

1. Is "stakeholder theory" really a theory or is it merely a perspective? If it is a theory, what are its essential arguments? If it is not a theory, then what is it and which problems does it/can it address?
2. Is the primary role of stakeholder management one of satisfying stakeholders or is it seeing them as joint partners in co-production?
3. Is stakeholder theory primarily aimed at creating value for all involved or at creating value for the firm?
4. From a firm value creation perspective, is it really optimal to treat all essential stakeholders unusually well (within rational limits)? If, on the other hand, a firm focuses on a narrower group of stakeholders, to what extent are the benefits of generalized exchange lost?
5. To what extent are essential property decision rights allocated to stakeholders ex ante vs. do they tend to evolve as stakeholders are enrolled in co-production over time?
6.   Are decision rights primarily a function of cash flow consideration or are they implicit for stakeholders that do not have explicit rights but are still critical to the creation of value?
7.   To what extent does stakeholder theory focus on achieving commitment from stakeholders through procedural and distributional justice vs. a focus on instrumentality in the name of efficiency?
8.   Is stakeholder theory a theory of ethical decision-making or does it simply promote moral minimums in managerial decisions?
9.   Does a stakeholder approach promote primarily cost minimization or opportunity maximization? Which factors create tradeoffs between these two perspectives?
10. Can firms find common ground among stakeholders with competing interests vs. do such competing interests make finding common ground unlikely?
11.  Does stakeholder-based management always lead to greater value creation vs. what are the essential moderators in this relationship?
12. Stakeholder theory and the resource-based view contradict each other vs. these two theories are complementary in some important ways.

Authors submitting papers for publication consideration in the special issue should mention in their cover letter to the editors which tension in the evolution of the stakeholder perspective their paper addresses.

The tensions and how authors might address them will be topics of discussion at a conference "extension" in Zürich, Switzerland to be held right after the annual Strategic Management Society meeting in September 2016. Scholars do not have to attend the full SMS meeting to attend the conference extension. Information about the extension will become available on the main SMS conference website at the middle of the Summer (http://strategicmanagement.net/berlin/overview/overview). Attendance at this event is not required of the authors who submit manuscripts to the special issue.

Submission process and schedule

· Authors should submit their full manuscripts through ScholarOne Manuscripts by December 1st, 2016 (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bas).
· Be sure to specify in the cover letter document that the manuscript is for the special issue on "Stakeholder Theory at the Crossroads." Please make sure your paper addresses an important tension in the evolution of the stakeholder perspective.
· Manuscripts should be prepared following the Business & Society author guidelines:  http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal200878/manuscriptSubmission.  
· After an initial screening by the guest editors, all articles will be double-blind peer reviewed by a minimum of two anonymous referees.
· Authors who are invited to revise and resubmit their papers will be invited for a manuscript development workshop (expected date and location: Summer 2017, University of Richmond, Virginia, USA).

About the journal

Business & Society is one of the leading journals at the intersection of business and issues of social responsibility, ethics and governance. Published by SAGE and founded in 1960, it was the first journal dedicated exclusively to publishing research at this intersection. It is the official journal of the International Association of Business and Society. For further details see http://bas.sagepub.com.

About the guest editors

Jay B. Barney is a Presidential Professor of Strategic Management and the Pierre Lassonde Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He previously served as a Professor of Management and held the Chase Chair for Excellence in Corporate Strategy at the Max M. Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. He also served on the faculty at Texas A&M University and UCLA.  

Professor Barney's research focuses on the relationship between costly-to-copy firm skills and capabilities and sustained competitive advantage-also known as the resource-based theory of competitive advantage. More recently, he has done research on the actions entrepreneurs take to form the opportunities they try to exploit-also known as the creation theory of entrepreneurship. His work has been published in numerous leading outlets, including the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, the Academy of Management Journal, and Management Science, and is among the most cited work in the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship.  He is a fellow of both the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society, has won the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management Irwin Outstanding Educator Award and the Academy of Management Award for Scholarly Contributions, and has received three honorary doctoral degrees-from Lund University (in Sweden), from the Copenhagen Business School, and the Universidad Pontifica Comillas (in Spain).

Professor Barney has served as an officer of both the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society.  He has also served as an associate editor at the Journal of Management, senior editor for Organization Science, a special issue editor at the Journal of Management and the Strategic Management Journal, and as co-editor at the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.  In addition to his teaching and research, he presents executive training programs throughout the US and Europe and consults with firms on large-scale organizational change and strategic analysis

 Jeffrey S. Harrison is a University Distinguished Educator and the W. David Robbins Chair of Strategic Management at the Robins School of Business, University of Richmond. Prior to his current appointment he served as the Fred G. Peelen Professor of Global Hospitality Strategy at Cornell University. Dr. Harrison's research interests include strategic management and business ethics, with particular expertise in the areas of stakeholder management, mergers and acquisitions, diversification, and strategic alliances.  Much of his work has been published in high impact journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, and Academy of Management Journal. He has authored or coauthored ten books, including Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation and Success (Yale University Press); Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art (Cambridge University Press); Mergers and Acquisitions: A Guide to Creating Value for Stakeholders (Oxford University Press); Foundations of Strategic Management, 6^th Ed. (Cengage); and Strategic Management of Resources and Relationships (Wiley). 

Dr. Harrison has served on several prestigious journal review boards, and currently serves on the board at Strategic Management Journal and Business Ethics Quarterly. As a guest co-editor, he has worked on special issues for Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Academy of Management Executive. Recently he co-organized and co-hosted a conference on stakeholder theory in Barcelona that attracted experts from twenty-five nations and he was also chair of the Stakeholder Strategy Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society, a group he helped organize.