Stakeholder (law)

Stakeholder (law)

The term "stakeholder", as traditionally used in the English language in law and notably gambling, is a third party who temporarily holds money or property while its owner is still being determined.

• More recently a very different meaning of the term has become widely used in management. In a business context, a "stakeholder" is a person or organization that has a legitimate interest in a project or entity. The new use of the term arose together with and due to the spread of corporate social responsibility ideas, but there are also utilitarian and traditional business goals that are served by the new meaning of the term (see Stakeholder theory and below).