The Stakeholder Strategy

2Stakeholder Collaboration and the Bottom Line

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Products or services are really frozen activities, concrete manifestations of the relationships among actors in a value-creating system.

—R. Normann and R. Ramirez, 1993

This chapter explains why collaboration may be the next source of competitive advantage for many North American companies. We first look at the overall link between corporate social responsibility and profitability and then document the bottom-line benefits of establishing positive relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, and communities and of investing in environmentally sustainable business practices.

Are Socially ...