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considered as stakeholders based on the stakes they have put into the corporation.
Shareholders provide capital, and in exchange expect the return of their investment. 60
Creditors lend finances or supply goods, hoping for payment to be made on time. 61
Employees contribute human capital to the company in exchange for remuneration
and safe working conditions. 62 Consumers‟ interests are vested in the products of the
company which they expect to be safe and to provide value for money. The local
community's interests in the company would include the possibility of employment,
developing the local area and ensuring that the local environment is protected. Each
of these groups has a different magnitude of claims in the company, depending on
the costs in producing their inputs. 63
The UK incorporated into the Companies Act 2006 the duty on directors to act in
good faith in a way he or she considers would likely to promote the success of the
companies. The duty to promote the success of the company is translated by the Act
as acts which will benefit its members as a whole. Therefore, the duty under section
172 of the Companies Act 2006 does not differ from the common law principle
which equates the interests of company to the interests of shareholders.
The section also includes the need for directors to have regard to other factors listed
in the section; the employees, suppliers, customers, environment and others. 64 It is
60 Hill and Jones ibid.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid.
64 Section 172(1) of the UK Companies Act 2006 provides “A director of a company must act in the
way he considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the
benefit of its members as a whole, and in doing so have regard (amongst other matters) to:
(a) the likely consequences of any decision in the long term;
(b) the interests of the company‟s employees;
(c) the need to foster the company‟s business relationships with suppliers, customers and others;
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