Abstract
To expand scholarly understanding of stakeholder marketing, the authors report data from a study that explores the practices of private firms founded with a commitment to triple-bottom-line achievement. The findings suggest that these firms develop and offer value propositions based on the inherent interconnectedness of all stakeholders in the marketplace, particularly recognizing opportunities to improve conditions for the “weakest-link” stakeholders and the legitimacy of their practices in the eyes of an extended set of stakeholders. The authors offer a model of principle-based stakeholder marketing in which moral principles and organizational culture support marketing behaviors that offer value propositions for stakeholders rather than to stakeholders. This requires not only organizationwide but also channelwide intelligence gathering, dissemination, and responsiveness and entails unique marketing-mix practices. The authors discuss the challenges that large public firms face in attempting to practice this model and avenues by which such firms can address those challenges. The authors suggest ways that public policy can encourage more firms to adopt principle-based stakeholder marketing. Finally, the authors identify future research needs.
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