For the last 30 years a growing number of scholars and practitioners have been experimenting with concepts and models that facilitate our understanding of the complexities of today’s business challenges. Among these, “stakeholder theory” or “stakeholder thinking” has emerged as a new narrative to understand and remedy three interconnected business problems—the problem of understanding how value is created and traded, the problem of connecting ethics and capitalism, and the problem of helping managers think about management such that the first two problems are addressed. In this article, we review the major uses and adaptations of stakeholder theory across a broad array of disciplines such as business ethics, corporate strategy, finance, accounting, management, and marketing. We also evaluate and suggest future directions in which research on stakeholder theory can continue to provide useful insights into the practice of sustainable and ethical value creation.

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Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art

The role of renewable energy in the global energy transformation

This article proposes contemporary best-practice recommendations for stated preference (SP) studies used to inform decision making, grounded in the accumulated body of peer-reviewed literature. These recommendations consider the use of SP methods to estimate both use and non-use (passive-use) values, and cover the broad SP domain, including contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments. We focus on applications to public goods in the context of the environment and human health but also consider ways in which the proposed recommendations might apply to other common areas of application. The recommendations recognize that SP results may be used and reused (benefit transfers) by governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and that all such applications must be considered. The intended result is a set of guidelines for SP studies that is more comprehensive than that of the original National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Blue Ribbon Panel on contingent valuation, is more germane to contemporary applications, and reflects the two decades of research since that time. We also distinguish between practices for which accumulated research is sufficient to support recommendations and those for which greater uncertainty remains. The goal of this article is to raise the quality of SP studies used to support decision making and promote research that will further enhance the practice of these studies worldwide.

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Contemporary Guidance for Stated Preference Studies

Why farmers continue to use pesticides despite environmental, health and sustainability costs

Environmental protection is now an integral part of public policies, at local, national and global levels. In all instances, the cost and benefits of policies and projects must be carefully weighed using a common monetary measuring rod. Yet, many different categories of benefits and cost must be evaluated, such as health impacts, property damage, ecosystem losses and other welfare effects. Furthermore, many of these benefits or damages occur over the long term, sometimes over several generations, or are irreversible (e.g. global warming, biodiversity losses). How can we evaluate these elements and give them a monetary value? How should we take into account impacts on future generations and of irreversible losses? How to deal with equity and sustainability issues? This book presents an in-depth assessment of the most recent conceptual and methodological developments in this area. It should provide a valuable reference and tool for environmental economists and policy analysts.

Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: Recent Developments

This study is part of the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD), a project designed to expand the world's knowledge of physical infrastructure in Africa. The AICD will provide a baseline against which future improvements in infrastructure services can be measured, making it possible to monitor the results achieved from donor support. It should also provide a more solid empirical foundation for prioritizing investments and designing policy reforms in the infrastructure sectors in Africa. The AICD is based on an unprecedented effort to collect detailed economic and technical data on the infrastructure sectors in Africa. The project has produced a series of original reports on public expenditure, spending needs, and sector performance in each of the main infrastructure sectors, including energy, information and communication technologies, irrigation, transport, and water and sanitation. The first phase of the AICD focused on 24 countries that together account for 85 percent of the gross domestic product, population, and infrastructure aid flows of Sub-Saharan Africa. Under a second phase of the project, coverage is expanding to include as many of the additional African countries as possible.

Africa's infrastructure : a time for transformation

While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. This publication brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of countries. It documents the prevalence of consumer subsidies, provides a typology of the many variants found in the developing world, and presents a number of indicators useful in assessing the degree to which such subsidies benefit the poor, focusing on three key concepts: beneficiary incidence, benefit incidence, and materiality. The findings on subsidy performance will be useful to policy makers, utility regulators, and sector practitioners who are contemplating introducing, eliminating, or modifying utility subsidies, and to those who view consumer utility subsidies as a social protection instrument.

Water, Electricity, and the Poor: Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?

Africa's Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation

https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Bazilian_et_al_2012_Energy_Access_Scenarios_to_2030.pdf

Energy access scenarios to 2030 for the power sector in sub-Saharan Africa

This comprehensive study identifies the concepts that are central to assessing the effect of infrastructure reform on the poor, based on a detailed analysis of the effects of a decade of reforms in Latin America. It demonstrates that because the access to, and affordability of, basic services is still a major problem, infrastructure investment will be a core component of poverty alleviation programs in the region. The book shows that although affordability of service tariffs is often an issue, in many instances, access is a much more pressing concern in meeting the infrastructure needs of the poor. In this context, the book makes a valuable contribution to the debate about privatization and deregulation, striking an excellent balance between enthusiasm for reform, and concern for the potentially perverse effects. It provides guidelines to assess infrastructure needs, and to ensure that strategies addressing such needs, are cost-effective. By placing special emphasis on data collection, and explanations of quantitative methodologies, that serve as inputs to studies needed to ensure inclusion of the poor in the provision of infrastructure, the study offers a combination of research, policy analysis, and capacity-building efforts. Concluding remarks stipulate the need for political commitment in the redistribution of welfare policies, regulatory reform, and on how will the private sector participate.

Vivien Foster

Papers

Africa's infrastructure : a time for transformation

Water, Electricity, and the Poor: Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?

Africa's Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation

Energy access scenarios to 2030 for the power sector in sub-Saharan Africa

Accounting for Poverty in Infrastructure Reform: Learning from Latin America's Experience