The paper finds that:

* administrative (reporting) reform is viewed in isolation from any necessary institutional reform which may provide the means for stakeholders to hold company directors accountable for actions affecting their vital interests

* whilst the corporate lobby apparently espouses a commitment to stakeholder responsiveness, and even accountability, their claims are pitched at the level of rhetoric, and ignores key issues such the establishment of rights and transfer of power to stakeholder groups

* the very ambiguity and indeterminacy with which the concepts of stakeholding and sustainability have been imbued explains a great deal of its appeal

* for stakeholder accountability to be established and associated reporting exercises to be meaningful in empowerment terms, a far more pluralistic form of corporate governance must be instituted than is currently in place

* accountability to stakeholders cannot be established by reporting reform alone.

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