Stakeholders are individuals or groups that depend on an organisation to fulfill their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends.
A stakeholder is anyone that has an interest in a business; these can be in the form of customers, employees, suppliers and community. Stakeholders include all those invested and involved in, or affected by, the company, such as employees, consumers, local communities, financiers, vendors, governmental agencies, and more.
With corporate social responsibility (CSR) receiving a lot of attention, business now is not only about making profit and firms are expected to be answerable not just to shareholders or stockholders; they have the responsibility to consider any group that is affected by the objectives of their business.
Read: Stakeholder Theory
Internal stakeholders are the ones who are within the company and are directly involved in the management and operations of the company. They are also known as primary stakeholders as they have a direct stake in the company’s success.
Employees, owners and shareholders are primary stakeholders.
External stakeholders are not directly employed by the company but are affected by the firms business activities. Customers, suppliers, communities, trade associations, public groups, governments are External stakeholders.
