This document sets out what the Achieving Stakeholder Impact study was designed to test. Its subject is the pivot from shareholder primacy to sustained stakeholder value creation, how that value is measured and communicated, the leadership attitudes it takes, and the role of brands and marketing.
Unusually, it states its beliefs before its evidence. A list of ten propositions leads to one hypothesis and twenty-two claims that follow from it.
Key findings
- The central hypothesis is a single sentence: overperforming businesses deliver sustained stakeholder value with purpose.
- The context begins with a shift in where company value sits, described as a massive move from tangible to non-tangible assets.
- Several things have been declining at once: CEO incentive horizon, tenure, innovation, and company performance.
- The study treats the US political backlash against ESG as temporary, calling it a speed bump on the stakeholder journey.
- One belief is stated in legal rather than aspirational terms: shareholders do not own the company or have a sole claim on all value created.
How the study was to be built
The 2023 approach layers three interview populations: more than 250 vision interviews with academics, experts, and senior practitioners, more than 25 with investors, board directors, and C-suite officers, and more than 25 per country with local business leaders.
Alongside the interviews sit AI hypertrend analysis for themes and emerging trends, comprehensive literature research, a meta-analysis of published stakeholder growth initiatives and results, and a parallel AI study to generate recommendations.
The document also lists the terms that had to be defined before the study could proceed, including stakeholders, shareholder primacy, value creation, material stakeholders, impact, systemic change, purpose, ecosystem, and ESG.
The stated beliefs
The first belief is systemic. The world is an interrelated ecosystem, and problems occur when you optimize for just one variable. Business is held to be essential to societal progress and innovation.
Two beliefs are about pressure. All companies will need to maintain a societal license to operate, and all business stakeholders will become louder and more powerful. A third holds that all business activities and deliberations will be transparent.
Two beliefs make performance claims that the study then tests. Companies driving long-term strategies outperform those pursuing short-term strategies, and more stakeholder engagement and value creation lead to increased innovation.
What an overperforming business is expected to do
The twenty-two hypotheses start with time and people. Overperformers deliver sustained value for all stakeholders, always manage short-term goals inside a long-term strategy, and recognize that their customers, employees, and investors are often the same human beings.
Several concern representation and transparency: understanding the impact they have on stakeholders and stakeholders have on them, providing transparency of that impact, and including representation of all material stakeholders in strategic decision-making.
Purpose carries three hypotheses. It guides all strategic decision-making, it makes employees and partners proud, and it aligns with at least one of the UN sustainable development goals.
Strategy hypotheses hold that overperformers do not prioritize one stakeholder over another, treat stakeholder value creation as an opportunity rather than a risk, have a clearly defined value-creation strategy across all stakeholders, and understand the importance of empathy in business.
The organizational hypotheses cover working interdependently across functions and units, shared responsibility and KPIs, incentive plans aligned to the strategy, empowering colleagues closest to stakeholders to act, and collaborating more closely with external partners.
The last group is about voice and reach: leading systemic change, refusing to let fear of greenwashing accusations limit activity, educating and communicating with all stakeholders about the value created, and aligning all societal impact activity with the overall value creation strategy.
Scope and limitations
This document is a study design, not a result. The twenty-two statements are hypotheses to be tested, and the beliefs are stated as beliefs rather than findings.
Source
This page summarises Achieving Stakeholder Impact (ASI) study, by Institute for Real Growth, Oxford University Said Business School Future of Marketing Initiative, Chinese Business School CKGSB, Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management, Spencer Stuart, WARC, KennedyFitch, The UK Marketing Society, Association of National Advertisers (ANA) CMO Growth Council, The B Team, FGS Global, Arthur W. Page Society, National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), 230511.