Stakeholder Theory and Stakeholder Salience: The Role of a Hierarchical Rights Structure in Company Law

Although concepts such as stakeholders, stakeholder salience and stakeholder capitalism have gained widespread attention in recent years, the basis for the identification of a stakeholder and the salience of stakeholders and interests remains unclear. I explore how company law operates on the basis of a hierarchical rights structure that defines, delineates and institutionalizes the status, roles, positions and claims of stakes and stakeholders as well as their salience. In addition, I show how debates concerning the status and position of social constructs in relation to this structure set the conditions of possibility for the recognition of stakes, stakeholders and their salience in company law, corporate governance and beyond. Engaging with the hierarchical rights structure in company law improves the descriptive validity of the identification of stakes, stakeholders and their salience. Moreover, active engagement with ongoing debates regarding this rights structure is important in order to ascertain how the role and salience of stakes and stakeholders are established.