A Measure of the Company's Orientation Toward the Interests of Different Input Providers
In recent years, many have argued for a greater orientation of companies toward defending the interests of their various stakeholders, and many firms have proclaimed their adherence to stakeholder capitalism. However, there is not a single measure that can objectively quantify and evaluate the orientation of companies. This paper proposes metrics to capture the evolution of the stakeholder focus vis-à-vis the other input providers. An empirical application to ESG-rated European companies concludes that, in 2013-2021, companies seemed to move toward a greater focus on shareholders’ interests to the detriment of a greater co-determination with employees' interests. Covid 19 and the social capital of companies have attenuated this orientation