Stakeholder management is crucial in the entrepreneurial process. The literature at the intersection of stakeholder management and entrepreneurship has primarily focused on a unidirectional perspective—specifically, how entrepreneurs manage stakeholders and the one-sided origin of stakeholder management initiated by entrepreneurs. While the existing research emphasizes how entrepreneurs initiate stakeholder management, this study theorizes how institutions influence entrepreneurs' stakeholder management practices. It distinguishes entrepreneur-driven stakeholder management from institution-driven stakeholder management and provides rationales for why the two should not be conflated in research. Furthermore, the paper introduces a framework illustrating how institution-driven stakeholder management can directly and indirectly influence different units of analysis, including ventures, stakeholders, and society. This study contributes to the literature on stakeholder management and entrepreneurship by broadening the understanding of institutional impacts on entrepreneurial practices.
