The stakeholder concept derives from a simple premise: Organizations and technologies exist in constellations of relationships. Organizations operate in a network of market and nonmarket relationships with other organizations, groups, and individuals. Likewise technologies emerge and exist in a network of suppliers, end users, and others who bear the impact of the technology. Generally with reference to both organizations and technologies, these related parties are termed stakeholders, meaning that they hold a stake in the outcomes of the organization or technology.

Stakeholder research has important implications for science, technology, and ethics, as stakeholder thinking concerns itself both with the distribution of benefits among stakeholders and the procedures by which stakeholders work together toward desirable ends. After a brief history of the concept, this entry summarizes the distributive and procedural aspects of stakeholder thinking, particularly as they apply to three areas: corporate decision making, technology assessment, and environmental regulation...