The term "stakeholders" ist often used in project management to describe project participants.
Instead of project participants, the term "stakeholders" is often used in project management. A stakeholder is either a natural person (the human being as a legal entity) or a legal person (e.g. an institution) who is interested in financial results and other outcomes. Project participants are also shareholders, investors, creditors, members of the company, partners as well as governments and the public (political parties, associations, media, etc.). Stakeholders are often those groups of influence which exist inside or outside the company that must be taken into account in the activities of the company.
In practice, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish who should be considered as a stakeholder. A clear and concise definition comes from R. E. Freeman: Strategic Management - A Stakeholder Approach, which was published in 1984. According to its definition, a stakeholder is a group (or an individual) that can influence the achievement of a company's goals and the work as a whole. Stakeholders are therefore all individuals or groups in an organisation whose contribution (work, capital, resources, etc.) is a basis for the success of the company.
The project stakeholders are usually those who actively participate in a project or are influenced by the project process and can determine the course of the project as well as the project results.