Oxford-GlobeScan Global Corporate Affairs Survey 2023 | Highlights Report

Oxford-GlobeScan Corporate Affairs Survey 2023: Highlights

In our annual survey of global Corporate Affairs professionals, GlobeScan partners with Oxford University’s Saïd Business School to understand global trends, priorities, challenges, and best practices in the arena of Corporate Affairs.

We recently hosted a webinar to discuss the key findings from our 2023 survey, featuring special guest panellists from Syngenta, AB InBev, and Vodacom South Africa.

Highlights of the Annual Survey:

  • Geopolitical risk and uncertainty continue to take centre stage as the greatest risk to global business in the near future, followed by climate change. In conjunction with this, the mounting weight of struggling economies affecting businesses has also been a rising concern.
  • Innovation and AI/digitisation and responding to the climate crisis are seen as great opportunities for global business.
  • The vast majority continue to believe that societal expectations toward purposeful leadership continue to rise and indicators assessing the embedding of purpose in their organisation is trending upward.
  • Although the risk of political populism is seen to continue its strong upward trend, Corporate Affairs practitioners are exhibiting continued low levels of appetite for corporate advocacy, likely in response to fears of greenwashing accusations.
  • The function of Corporate Affairs continues to grow in scope and importance, with reputation management and stakeholder engagement being the primary contributors to its impact in creating and protecting business value.