Abstract
This chapter provides an exposition of the why, what and how of stakeholder capitalism and sustainable enterprise value creation. It defines these concepts, provides a brief overview of their varied historical and legal manifestation around the world and traces the secular forces transforming the contemporary business context and fuelling the resurgence of stakeholder capitalism as a directional concept. This chapter introduces the argument, developed in greater detail in subsequent chapters, that business leaders in this new era must look more rigorously beyond their firm’s near-term operations and financial results, improving their understanding of how underlying economic, social, political, technological and environmental conditions are evolving and likely to affect their firm’s operations and prospects over time. They must proactively translate this wider appreciation of the drivers of enterprise value into strategies and practices that simultaneously benefit shareholders and other stakeholders out of a recognition that such synergy is a source of further firm competitiveness and resilience.