How has stakeholder theory served the public administration literature? In search of the intellectual structure of the field

This investigation aims to contribute to the intellectual structure of public administration stakeholder theory. There is a need for dedicated effort to understand the real contribution of the most cited references in the field. The literature review is carried out using bibliometric and lexical analyses. The main conclusion is that articles have used concepts from four theoretical bases: collaborative governance, stakeholder salience, legitimacy, and wicked policy problems. This represents a step forward in the existing literature on public administration stakeholder theory extant literature as we advocate the return to using stakeholders to explain performance determinants.