Strategy
Despite the frequency of board discussions around stakeholder capitalism and the levels of research and engagement indicated in the research, only 21 percent of respondents say their company has a defined strategy for addressing stakeholder capitalism. Fifty-eight percent say their company does not, although it should be noted that the same number – 21 percent – say they do not know whether their company has such a strategy as say they do.
More than a quarter (27 percent) of respondents at mega-cap companies say they have a defined stakeholder capitalism strategy, compared with 23 percent of those at mid-caps, 19 percent of those at small-cap companies and 18 percent of those at large caps.
There appears to be little immediate prospect of widespread change. Overall, just 10 percent of respondents say their company has plans to develop a stakeholder capitalism strategy in the next year, although it's worth noting that almost a third (31 percent) don’t know whether that’s the case.
Among respondents whose companies have a defined stakeholder capitalism strategy, opinion is quite evenly split between those who say their company fully implements it (52 percent) and those who say it partially implements it (48 percent).
Although based on a relatively small sample size, it appears that those at larger companies – and hence with more resources – are more likely to believe their strategy is fully implemented. Eighty-three percent of respondents at mega-caps say the strategy is fully implemented, more than twice the 40 percent of those at mid-caps and almost five times the 17 percent of those at small-cap companies who say the same.
Rather than via formal strategies on stakeholder capitalism, one area where more companies are taking definitive action is executive compensation. Overall, more than half (51 percent) of respondents say this is linked to corporate purpose at their company.
Sixty-one percent of those at small-cap firms report that executive compensation is linked to corporate purpose. This compares with 59 percent, 45 percent and 36 percent among those at mega-cap, mid-cap and large-cap companies, respectively. More than six in 10 (61 percent) of respondents in Europe say there is such a link, compared with 44 percent of those in North America.
