Stakeholders — AQA GCSE Business
Test yourself on Stakeholders with AQA GCSE practice questions.
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Stakeholders explained
Business activity creates effects that fall unevenly on stakeholders.
Read the full explanation
A decision such as relocating a factory may raise profit for shareholders, cut costs for customers, but cause redundancy for employees and disruption for the local community. Students should identify the stakeholder groups affected, explain the direction of the impact (positive, negative or mixed), and justify which group is most affected using a specific business example. The impact can be short term, such as a price rise, or long term, such as reputation damage. Assessment rewards chains of reasoning that link the business action to a stakeholder outcome, not just a list of groups.
Your focus
- Identify the main stakeholder groups affected by a given business activity.
- Explain how one business decision can produce different impacts for different stakeholder groups.
- Evaluate which stakeholder group is most affected and justify the judgement.
Stakeholders exam tips
Marking Points
- Identifies relevant stakeholder groups such as owners/shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, local community and government.
- Explains a specific impact on at least one group, for example redundancies reduce employee income and motivation.
- Distinguishes between positive and negative impacts, and between short-term and long-term effects.
- Uses a business example or scenario to show how one action produces different impacts for different groups.
- Reaches a supported judgement about which stakeholder is most affected and why.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Use the command word to decide depth: 'identify' needs a group, 'explain' needs a because chain, 'analyse' needs effects on several groups.
- 💡Anchor each point to the case study business rather than writing generically about 'a business'.
- 💡Finish with a short judgement that names the most affected stakeholder and gives a reason.
Common Mistakes
- Listing stakeholder groups without explaining any impact; correction: for each group, state one concrete effect and why it happens.
- Treating all impacts as negative; correction: recognise that some groups gain, such as shareholders receiving higher dividends.
- Confusing stakeholders with shareholders; correction: remember shareholders are one stakeholder group, while employees, customers and the community are others.