Consumers want more engagement on social issues, corporate leaders disagree: report

85% believe that companies and brands should be responsible for addressing social issues.

More than half or 59% of Singaporeans believe companies are struggling to engage in social issues effectively, with 70% saying they should be more engaged, according to a report by Zeno.

Almost eight out of 10 said they considered social issue engagement when deciding what companies to buy from or what brands to recommend, affecting even employer choices and investment decisions. 

On the nature of engagements, only 13% expected brands to do the minimum to comply with their legal or regulatory responsibilities; and just 10% expected corporate activism to drive social and political action. 

In contrast, 51% preferred that brands only support social issues relevant to their business.

The study also found that 64% of corporate leaders see their companies’ social engagement as about the right amount, while 69% felt that consumers had unrealistic expectations of their company’s abilities to engage in social issues. 

84% felt engagement in social issues was too important, with 81% saying society being more polarised has made engaging more difficult, and almost half foresee it becoming more challenging in the future. 

“We believe many of these difficulties stem from our finding that no less than 75% of senior leaders say they don’t have a formal process in place for measuring stakeholder reaction to their engagement on social issues,” Swyn Evans, Zeno Group’s Singapore managing director, said.  

The report surveyed 212 C-suite executives from companies worldwide, as well as over 7,000 consumers globally, including 1,000 in Singapore.