Managing for stakeholders towards corporate environmental sustainability

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between the managing for stakeholders approach and corporate environmental sustainability. Focused on the debates on the impacts that organizations and their stakeholders have on society's welfare, our conceptual paper proposes a rationale addressing the question: In what ways does managing for stakeholders may influence corporate environmental sustainability? To this end, we analyze previous literature on managing stakeholders focused on how firms address stakeholders' environmental concerns and previous literature on corporate sustainability focused on managing stakeholders' expectations. There is a fit between adopting a managing for stakeholders approach and encouraging firms to become more environmentally sustainable. Furthermore, our rationale argues that this approach may also influence firms to build closer relationships with stakeholders by adopting transparent practices and proactive environmental strategies, impacting synergic value creation, stakeholder engagement, and overall performance. Finally, we argue for a novel approach to link managing for stakeholders and corporate sustainability while suggesting propositions for future investigation and implications for practitioners.