Abstract
Corporates have traditionally been driven by tangible financial metrics which convey financial value to shareholders with absolute clarity. Paradoxically, capitalization of listed companies is not driven only by accounting instruments such as profit but increasingly by sentiment as a reflection of shareholder alignment.
Similarly corporate performance is rarely driven solely by product offering but equally by brand value, citizen value and intangible currencies such as sustainability, health & wellbeing and provenance. Indeed, CEO's find themselves bewildered by the impact of social value issues on their businesses, for example, determining outcomes of public sector tenders, compliance with legislative frameworks such as supply chain resilience (often termed "Modern Slavery"), public outcry at tax avoidance and pay disparity.
The burgeoning of Intangible Values in our society is at the centre of developing international legislative frameworks such as the UK The Social Value Act 2012, 2% CSR Law in India, Indonesia 2% CSR Law, 2.5% Zakat in the Islamic countries, the Italian 0.5% Cinque Mille, The Modern Slavery Act, amongt others. This brave new world of social impact is the direct result of the increasingly complex inter-relationships between Big Data, Social Media, Sentiment Analysis and the universal acceptance of the multi-stakeholder Citizenship framework.