Stakeholder theory emphasizes that firms face multiple stakeholders with divergent interests, yet research often treats stakeholder pressure as homogeneous or examines it in isolation. We place heterogeneity at the center of stakeholder theory by theorizing and measuring variation in stakeholder pressure across CSR issues and stakeholder groups. Using shareholder proposals to capture firm-level heterogeneity and LSEG data to distinguish substantive, symbolic, and compliance-oriented CSR, we analyze 785 U.S. firm-year observations in an event-study design. We find that greater heterogeneity across issues or stakeholder groups reduces subsequent substantive CSR adoption by 7.5 and 7.7 percentage points. Instrumental-variable analyses based on proposal waves support this interpretation. Heterogeneous pressure is also associated with higher emissions, more workplace accidents, lower employee satisfaction, and, for issue heterogeneity, weaker financial performance. Stakeholder collaboration and managerial or investor receptivity attenuate these effects. Our findings show that the alignment of stakeholder demands shapes firms’ responses to pressure, moving the debate from whether to how stakeholder pressure affects firms.
