Maurizio Zollo to chair the Stakeholder Strategy Interest Group

The board of the Strategic Management Society, the main international association for professors of strategy, has approved the creation of a new Stakeholder Strategy Interest Group. The proposal had been submitted by Maurizio Zollo, Università Bocconi, Edward Freeman, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration - the founding father of the stakeholder theory in management studies - and Jeffrey Harrison, University of Richmond.

The purpose of the interest group will be to encourage scholarship that embraces a multi-stakeholder perspective of firm strategy. "It will provide a forum", the three promoters wrote, "for a diverse group of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines and countries to discuss and develop their stakeholder-based research".

The group of founders includes 54 people from institutions in 11 countries (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the US) and a wide range of disciplines (business ethics, social responsibility, international marketing, accounting, finance, operations, management, sociology, entrepreneurship, communications and strategic management).

Maurizio Zollo will be program chair for 2011, until elected members begin to move through the three-year officer track.