S&P Global Ratings' New White Paper Examines Sharpening Focus On Corporate Responsibility To Society
S&P Global Ratings' new white paper discusses the shift towards stakeholder capitalism, emphasizing long-term value creation for customers, employees, and society, rather than merely focusing on shareholder returns. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, heightening expectations for corporate social responsibility. The report assesses the challenges of balancing stakeholder and shareholder interests and highlights the importance of measuring both direct and indirect ESG impacts. It also notes that sustainable investing trends may prompt companies to realign with market expectations on sustainable growth.
- The white paper highlights a growing trend towards stakeholder capitalism, suggesting potential for long-term value creation.
- Identifies increased market scrutiny of ESG factors, which may drive corporations to prioritize sustainability.
- The necessity to balance sometimes-contradictory stakeholder and shareholder interests poses strategic challenges for companies.
LONDON, Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (S&P Global Ratings) Stakeholder capitalism is challenging traditional views of value creation, says S&P Global Ratings and its newly formed Sustainable Finance Scientific Council in its first white paper..
The report, "Stakeholder Capitalism: Aligning Value Creation With Protection Of Values," published today on RatingsDirect, argues that corporate priorities are increasingly shifting towards long-term value creation for customers, employees, society, and the environment, rather than just shareholder returns.
According to the white paper, the COVID-19 pandemic has served to accelerate this shift, with substantial government support for businesses raising expectations of corporate social responsibility.
In addition, the white paper explores the benefits and challenges of balancing stakeholder and shareholder interests; how the value created by stakeholder capitalism can be measured, and whether the indirect "scope three" ESG impacts of a company should be considered, along with the direct impacts--just as scope one, two, and three greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are increasingly being disclosed under the GHG Protocol.
Michael Wilkins, Senior Research Follow, Sustainable Finance, S&P Global Ratings, and lead author of the white paper, said: "Recent surges in sustainable investing and increasing market scrutiny of ESG factors are calling into question the purpose of corporations and asking where their responsibilities to society begin and end. Companies are now expected to invest more in employee health and wellbeing, safety protocols, and ensuring business continuity. But this means aligning these objectives with sometimes-contradictory shareholder interests."
He added: "The COVID-19 crisis has reaffirmed the materiality of sustainability-related risks and the deep links between businesses and their stakeholders across the value chains. Indeed, given the S&P 500 ESG Index outperformed, suffered fewer losses, and recovered faster than the S&P 500 during the pandemic, it may act as an impetus for corporations to refocus their priorities in line with market expectations around sustainable growth."
The white paper was produced following consultation with S&P Global Ratings' newly formed Sustainable Finance Scientific Council, which aims to foster an exchange of ideas and strategies between leading experts in academia, sustainability, and finance, as well as major corporates and investors on how the global capital markets can best transition toward sustainability.
This report does not constitute a rating action.
The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect at www.capitaliq.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber, you may purchase a copy of the report by calling (1) 212-438-7280 or sending an e-mail to research_request@spglobal.com. Ratings information can also be found on S&P Global Ratings' public website by using the Ratings search box located in the left column at www.standardandpoors.com. Alternatively, call one of the following S&P Global Ratings numbers: Client Support Europe (44) 20-7176-7176; London Press Office (44) 20-7176-3605; Paris (33) 1-4420-6708; Frankfurt (49) 69-33-999-225; Stockholm (46) 8-440-5914; or Moscow (7) 495-783-4009.
Copyright © 2021 by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. All rights reserved.
No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, valuations, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC or its affiliates (collectively, S&P). The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. S&P Parties are not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, for the results obtained from the use of the Content, or for the security or maintenance of any data input by the user. The Content is provided on an "as is" basis. S&P PARTIES DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, FREEDOM FROM BUGS, SOFTWARE ERRORS OR DEFECTS, THAT THE CONTENT'S FUNCTIONING WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL OPERATE WITH ANY SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION. In no event shall S&P Parties be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs or losses caused by negligence) in connection with any use of the Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
Credit-related and other analyses, including ratings, and statements in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact. S&P's opinions, analyses and rating acknowledgment decisions (described below) are not recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security. S&P assumes no obligation to update the Content following publication in any form or format. The Content should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user, its management, employees, advisors and/or clients when making investment and other business decisions. S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor except where registered as such. While S&P has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. Rating-related publications may be published for a variety of reasons that are not necessarily dependent on action by rating committees, including, but not limited to, the publication of a periodic update on a credit rating and related analyses.
To the extent that regulatory authorities allow a rating agency to acknowledge in one jurisdiction a rating issued in another jurisdiction for certain regulatory purposes, S&P reserves the right to assign, withdraw or suspend such acknowledgment at any time and in its sole discretion. S&P Parties disclaim any duty whatsoever arising out of the assignment, withdrawal or suspension of an acknowledgment as well as any liability for any damage alleged to have been suffered on account thereof.
S&P keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.
S&P may receive compensation for its ratings and certain analyses, normally from issuers or underwriters of securities or from obligors. S&P reserves the right to disseminate its opinions and analyses. S&P's public ratings and analyses are made available on its Web sites, www.standardandpoors.com (free of charge), and www.ratingsdirect.com (subscription), and may be distributed through other means, including via S&P publications and third-party redistributors. Additional information about our ratings fees is available at www.standardandpoors.com/usratingsfees.
STANDARD & POOR'S, S&P and RATINGSDIRECT are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC.
View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sp-global-ratings-new-white-paper-examines-sharpening-focus-on-corporate-responsibility-to-society-301210997.html
SOURCE S&P Global Ratings
FAQ
What is the focus of S&P Global Ratings' new white paper released on January 19, 2021?
How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced corporate social responsibility according to S&P Global Ratings?
What does S&P Global Ratings say about sustainable investing trends?
What does the report by S&P Global Ratings say about measuring ESG impacts?
