Stakeholder theory has been a popular heuristic for describing the management environment for years, but it has not attained full theo- retical status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders pos- sessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legiti- macy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.