Who are the salient stakeholders? A perspective from the Chilean mining industry

This paper examines stakeholder salience from a multi-stakeholders perspective. Through analysing the data collected through interviews with five stakeholder groups in the Chilean mining industry, the article draws conclusions about how various groups perceive the salience of other stakeholders in relation to corporate social responsibility based on the attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. The findings indicate that the stakeholder groups; community, government and unions are perceived as definitive stakeholders. Every stakeholder group identified these groups as the most salient stakeholders. The paper also concludes that stakeholder perceptions vary in regard to NGOs and media. These two groups are generally perceived as being latent stakeholders, despite NGOs and the media seeing themselves as expectant stakeholders, increasing their level of salience.