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Top1. Introduction
A business, even a very successful one, cannot exist in a vacuum (Matteson & Metivier, 2015) and this growing recognition has brought businesses to the realization that no individual sector can make a significant, sustainable difference alone but rather has to work collectively with numerous individuals and groups so as to improve its own competitiveness, growth and profitability while simultaneously creating value for the society (Mondi Group Sustainable Development Report, 2013). An organization is therefore not self-contained or self-sufficient. It depends on its environment for needed resources, information or social legitimacy, and these are most often through exchange relationships with its stakeholders (Marcinkowska, 2013). For instance, an organization depends on investors for financing, customers to buy its products, employees to attend to customers and perform other roles, suppliers for raw materials and other resources necessary to run the business, and the community within which they can thrive. Matteson and Metivier (2015) opined that if any of these groups are absent, the business cannot be successful. However, Popa, Oancea- Negescu and Popescu (2012) argued that, though there are numerous situations in which these stakeholders’ rights are affected by the businesses’ activities, sometimes, these stakeholders’ interests may also affect the purposes, objectives and development of these businesses, even to the extent of jeopardizing their existence, especially if a conflict of interest arose between the shareholders and other stakeholders. For many companies, managing their stakeholders represent the key to success in terms of the current economic environment (Popa, et al., 2012; Wu, and Wokutch, 2015); if each of their preferences could be satisfied, the interests of all would be better represented, but this success depends on how well the organizations can align and fulfil the needs of most or all stakeholders, because it is that organization that could do this to the fullest that will be most successful and survive longer (Bourne, 2014). This paper aims to contribute to related literature, with the main purpose of providing more understanding into the link between stakeholders’ analysis and organizational performance with selected Nigerian financial institutions as examples.