Abstract: This paper is an attempt to understand the relationship between a situation analysis and a stakeholder analysis in the context of the case method of education in business schools. It argues that we must differentiate between the existential and material dimensions in a case analysis since a stake is not necessarily pre-given in a business situation, but emerges from within the discursive contexts of a case analysis. Most of the assumptions about human behavior in firms during a case analysis are drawn from agency theory though case instructors are not consciously aware of doing so. This is usually the case even if case instructors have not studied agency theory and are teaching cases not directly related to finance or financial theory. Agency theory presupposes that what is in contention in firms is only a material stake and does not incorporate existential elements like the quest for identity in the behavior of firms.
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