Investors have a lesser view of the importance of socio-political stances than IROs, with many more seeing little or no importance in corporate positioning on these issues. Even so, a majority of investors still express the importance of having a stated position on every identified issue except LGBTQ+ rights.
Employment rights is clearly the issue where investors think it’s most important for companies to have an opinion, with nearly three quarters viewing it as important or very important. As with IROs, the other issues in the top three most valued by investors are environmental attitudes and racial or ethnic discrimination.
Investors attach the least importance to issues of gender or sexual identity: women’s rights is the fourth-most important issue for IR professionals but ranks only sixth out of eight for investors. A quarter of investors think it is not at all important for companies to have a stated position on LGBTQ+ rights while three in 10 are neutral on the issue.
