Investor interest

On their agenda?

Investor interest

On their agenda?

In the past year, how often have investors asked questions about stakeholder capitalism issues affecting your company?

The level of attention stakeholder capitalism attracts in public discourse does not appear to have translated into it being a frequent topic of discussion in engagements with shareholders.Respondents were asked to rate the frequency with which investors have in the past year asked about stakeholder capitalism issues affecting their company, using a scale of one to five, where one is ‘never’ and five is ‘very frequently’. Overall, the average score is 2, or ‘occasionally’. Respondents at mega-cap companies tend to report receiving the most frequent questions, with an average score of 2.4, or between ‘occasionally’ and ‘sometimes’.Respondents at mid-cap and large-cap companies each give an average score of 1.7, compared with the 2.1 average score given by those at small caps. Those in Europe on average report more frequent investor questions (2.4) than their peers in North America (1.8).

On the whole, how important are stakeholder capitalism issues to your investors?

Respondents were also asked to rate the importance of stakeholder capitalism issues to their investors using a scale of one to five, where one is ‘not at all important’ and five is ‘extremely important’.Globally, the average score is 2.5. Respondents in Europe report a higher average score (2.8) than do their peers in North America (2.3).Those at mega-caps report the highest average score (3.4) for the importance of stakeholder capitalism to investors. More than half (53 percent) say those issues are very or extremely important to their investors. Just under three in 10 respondents at mid-caps (29 percent) say the issues are very important. By contrast, almost half (48 percent) of respondents at large caps say stakeholder capitalism is not at all important to their investors.Comments
When asked what investors ask about stakeholder capitalism issues affecting their company, respondents’ comments include:

‘Progress on ESG plans and commitments, cost’
‘Generally, how we view the issue overall’
‘Investors want to know the extent of influence stakeholders have on the company’
‘What is the capital allocation policy of the company and how is stakeholder engagement considered as a part of it?’
‘General concerns’
‘Community relations issues’
‘Ownership of founder and broadening of share float’
‘Indigenous reconciliation, climate change, diversity’
‘Mainly about public hearings’
‘This essentially comes up when people ask about the S in ESG’
‘Shareholders tend to ask about climate and environmental issues – including adaptation to climate change’
‘Capital allocation’
‘[Greenhouse gas] emissions, innovation, climate change, nature loss, diversity and dignity, health and well-being, corporate governance’
‘Questions often linked to social value metrics contained in contract tender processes (both in public and private sector)’