Stakeholder theory

Stakeholder theory (ST) is a profound theory in business ethics and organizational management. Though several ST reviews are available, they remain restricted to functional or niche areas. Specifically, no study, to date, has attempted to review ST research in its entirety. To address this noteworthy gap, this study endeavors to (i) offer a comprehensive definition of ST and (ii) retrospect ST research and prospect its promising avenues for future growth. Given the large corpus (n = 988) and long history (1969–2021) of ST research, this study adopts and performs a systematic literature review using bibliometric analysis (performance analysis and science mapping). Consequently, this study reveals (i) the productivity (publication) and impact (citation) of ST research and its contributors (journals, authors, countries), (ii) the major thematic clusters of ST research (ST and sustainability, ST and organizational performance, ST and strategic management, and ST and stakeholder management), and (iii) the promising avenues to advance ST research across all its major thematic clusters.