Publications
Publications
- February 1989
- HBS Case Collection
Note on Attracting Stakeholders
By: Amar Bhide and Howard H. Stevenson
Abstract
Acquiring resources--or to put it more broadly, attracting stakeholders--is a basic entrepreneurial task. While every enterprise needs employees, customers, suppliers, and financiers who are willing to risk their time and money, attracting these "stakeholders" to an entrepreneurial venture is a particularly difficult challenge. This note first describes the importance of the challenge and then the set of tasks the entrepreneur must work on in order to overcome it: Designing the enterprise to minimize the stakeholder investment needed, selecting the right stakeholders, and then convincing them to participate in the enterprise.
Keywords
Business Ventures; Customers; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Human Resources; Organizational Design; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty
Citation
Bhide, Amar, and Howard H. Stevenson. "Note on Attracting Stakeholders." Harvard Business School Background Note 389-139, February 1989.