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Customer Stakeholder

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® Academy o/ Management Executive. 2004. Vol. 18. No. 2

Business ethics and customer stakeholders
O.C. Ferrell

A common view of the firm holds that employees, customers, shareholders, and suppliers are key organizational stakeholders.^ While obligations to these stakeholders are sometimes considered to be motivated by organizational self-interest, the ethical perspective asserts the rightness or wrongness of specific firm actions independently of any social or stakeholder obligations.^ Customers are key stakeholders that help establish the firm's reputation and identification. For example, today Procter and Gamble is considered a textbook marketdriven global powerhouse with billion-dollar brands such as Bounty, Olay, Tide, Crest, and Folgers.^ Understanding customer needs and wants and providing customers with high-quality products are the key to the company's success. A market orientation focuses on an understanding of customers' expressed and latent needs and development of superior solutions to the needs.* Such an approach selects to elevate the interests of one stakeholder—the customer—over those of others.

another in advertising campaigns, each declared that they provided the 'freshest' ingredients. The matter was taken to court and resolved through civil litigation. The importance of creating customer relationships and creating value for the customer as a part of market orientation should lead to increased performance. This article provides insights on foundations for ethical customer relationships, contingent knowledge about customers as stakeholders, and insights on establishing a balanced stakeholder orientation from a managerial perspective. Foundations for Ethical Customer Stakeholder Relationships The relationship between a customer and a firm exists because of mutual expectations built on trust, good faith, and fair dealing in their interaction. In

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