Impactos Económicos

According to Proctor (2011) Stakeholder theory has also been used in a number of ways since its foundation into management literature. Donaldson and Preston (1995) categorise these uses as descriptive/empirical, instrumental, and normative. Freeman (2004) posits that a descriptive theory basically demonstrate that businesses have

stakeholders; an instrumental theory illustrates that businesses that deliberate with their stakeholders devise successful strategies; a normative theory describe why firms should give consideration to their stakeholders. These categories will be summarised below.

The normative approach attempts to understand the establishment of some fundamental moral and philosophical principles (Zunker, 2011), such as involving the local community with which you operate. The basic idea is thus that a corporation has an obligation to treat its stakeholders well, but not for the sake of increasing shareholders’ wealth (Pedersen, 2004). This should also apply to tourism SMMEs who should treat their stakeholders well, especially the local community with which they operate well.

The foundation of normative stakeholder theory resides in its assertion of ethical and moral standards as the only acceptable approach for corporate behaviour (Jacobs, 2014). This perspective focuses on the moral propriety of the behaviour of businesses (Aaltonen, 2010). Furthermore, normative justification for stakeholder takes the theory beyond strategic issues and into the realm of philosophical foundations (Freeman, 2004). The arguments for the normative justification are based on ethics, morality, utilitarianism and corporate social responsibility (Pedersen, 2004). Therefore, a necessary condition for a theory of business to be normative is that it should provide ethical principles that guide actions in business life (Enyinna, 2013). This author further posits that normative theory uses philosophical principles to identify the obligations firms have towards various stakeholders and to provide the arguments that explain and support these obligations. It is for this reason that ecotourism was considered, to ensure that the natural environment and the local community are treated in an ethical manner (McGahey, 2012) over and above meeting economic and social considerations of stakeholders. From a stakeholder perspective, tourism SMMEs should consider the ethical principles as a guide when exploiting the environment for profit. For example, World Tourism Organisation (2001) affirms that tourism owner/managers have an obligation to provide tourists with objective and honest information about their places of destination.

According to Zunker (2011), the descriptive branch of Stakeholder theory enlightens the past, present, and future activities of businesses and their stakeholders and

generates predictive proposals associated with stakeholder management. This author further maintains that this element of theory is used to describe and justify specific behaviours and characteristics of businesses. The descriptive thesis of Stakeholder theory places an emphasis on describing how an organisation is an assemblage of competing and cooperating stakeholders (Pedersen, 2004). It can also be used to investigate if the stakeholders perceive the business as such an assemblage, or merely to determine which type of management strategy a certain business adopts (Pedersen, 2004). Enyinna (2013) posits that descriptive stakeholder theory attempts to empirically show the actual relationship between managers and their stakeholders. Hence, descriptive theory is used to describe and sometimes to clarify specific business characteristics and behaviors (Aaltonen, 2010). In this view, tourism SMMEs need to first identify the stakeholders, and secondly their influence on the business. For example, the Department of Trade and Industry can be identified as a stakeholder for tourism enterprise in the Free State and it can influence this business through its tourism policies and regulations which cover economic returns, impact assessments and implications of tourism activities on the economic, social and natural environment.

Instrumental refers to how stakeholder theory is used to identify the connections, or lack of connections, between stakeholder management and the achievement of organisation objectives (Proctor, 2011). Pedersen (2004) concurs that the instrumental thesis of the theory links profitability to the adoption of a stakeholder concentrated management style. In other words, the attention given to managing of stakeholders will have a bearing on how tourism SMMEs will perform financially. The potential of instrumental stakeholder is documented by the way in which modern businesses are incorporating stakeholders into their profit motivated decision-making processes (Jacobs, 2014). By examining examples of business actions made in consideration of stakeholders, the instrumental lens “offers a framework for examining the connections between the practice of stakeholder management and the achievement of various business performance goals, like profitability and business growth (Jacobs, 2014). The instrumental approach, according to Jacobs, advocates the formulation and implementation of processes that satisfy stakeholders because they control key resources and suggests that stakeholder satisfaction, in turn, will ensure the long-term survival and success of the business.

Additionally, Zunker (2011) argues that the instrumental approach seeks to examine specific links between stakeholder management and business performance. It explores how management encourages contributions from their stakeholders to accomplish the desired goals and objectives of the business (Zunker, 2011). Instrumental theory tries to provide an empirical link between the stakeholder management practices and financial returns (Enyinna, 2013). Moreover, the instrumental approach strives to connect stakeholder theory with superior financial performance (Pedersen, 2004). Enyinna (2013) states that Instrumental stakeholder theory is hypothetical, i.e. it recommends a given line of action (in this case, looking after stakeholder interests) if you are interested in a given outcome (in this case, financial rewards): normative stakeholder theory, on the other hand, is categorical, i.e. it recommends an action simply because it is right and without making reference to any interests.