About the paper
The 2026 Oxford-GlobeScan Global Corporate Affairs Survey is an original expert survey examining the risks, opportunities and evolving role of Corporate Affairs.
The online survey was fielded from 4 February to 27 March 2026 among 294 senior Corporate Affairs and related professionals in 51 countries; 83 percent had more than ten years’ experience and 79 percent reported to Board, CEO or Group Executive level.
The sample spans Europe, South America, North America, Africa and Asia-Pacific, although it is unevenly distributed geographically, with Europe accounting for 44 percent and South America 26 percent of respondents.
Length: 28 pages
More information/download: https://globescan.com/2026/07/20/oxford-globescan-global-corporate-affairs-survey-2026/
Core Insights
1. What is the report’s central argument about how the Corporate Affairs environment is changing?
The report argues that Corporate Affairs is being reshaped by the convergence of geopolitical volatility, geoeconomic fragmentation and rapid technological change, particularly AI. Its central message is not simply that the external environment has become more difficult, but that the traditional Corporate Affairs model is becoming inadequate for dealing with it.
Geopolitical risk remains by far the dominant short-term concern, cited by 76 percent of respondents. However, the report argues that the nature of this risk is becoming more concrete and economically consequential. Concerns about tariffs, supply chains, economic uncertainty, energy costs and changing trade relationships indicate what the authors describe as a return to “geoeconomics”: political objectives increasingly being pursued through economic instruments.
At the same time, AI has moved dramatically up the agenda. AI and technology were identified as a major business risk by 44 percent of respondents, compared with only 17 percent in 2025. Yet the same technological transformation is also seen as the largest opportunity available to business, with 71 percent naming innovation, digitalisation and AI as a major opportunity.
This combination of geopolitical and technological disruption creates a more complex role for Corporate Affairs. The function is increasingly expected to interpret external developments, anticipate political and reputational risks, coordinate responses across the organisation and translate external intelligence into advice for senior management.
The report therefore portrays Corporate Affairs as moving away from being primarily a communications or stakeholder-relations function towards becoming a strategically embedded organisational capability. Its emerging role is closer to that of a navigation function: helping leadership understand an increasingly volatile environment and decide how the organisation should respond.
This transformation is not presented simply as an aspiration from the authors. Seventy-four percent of respondents themselves believe that their existing Corporate Affairs approach requires some form of revision, including 17 percent who believe it requires radical revision.
2. What do Corporate Affairs leaders see as the most important risks and opportunities for global business?
The risk landscape is dominated by geopolitics. Seventy-six percent of respondents identify geopolitical risk as one of the biggest risks facing global business over the next two years, making it the leading concern for the seventh consecutive year.
The second-largest risk is the impact of AI and technology at 44 percent, up 27 percentage points from 2025. This is one of the most striking changes in the survey. Macroeconomic conditions rank third at 34 percent, followed by climate change at 19 percent. Data privacy and cyber risk, populism and social division, reputation risk, regulatory pressures, supply-chain problems and misinformation also feature among the principal concerns.
The rankings vary by sector and region. Geopolitics leads across every region, but macroeconomic risks rank particularly highly in Africa and North America. Sector differences are also evident: climate change remains especially important in food and agriculture, while data privacy and cyber issues are prominent in ICT, media and financial services.
The opportunity landscape looks very different but is driven by some of the same forces. Innovation, digitalisation and AI dominate at 71 percent, substantially ahead of stakeholder engagement and trust building at 23 percent and sustainable growth and ESG strategies at 17 percent. Economic growth and upliftment, economic and political stability, collaboration, talent and skills, and the energy transition are also identified as opportunities.
This creates one of the report’s central paradoxes. AI is simultaneously regarded as one of the largest threats and the single largest opportunity facing business. The report interprets this as evidence that Corporate Affairs organisations must learn both to exploit new technology and to manage the disruption it creates.
The increasing importance of stakeholder engagement is another notable finding. Mentions of stakeholder engagement and trust building as an opportunity rose from 11 percent in 2025 to 23 percent in 2026. The report therefore sees technological capability and stakeholder legitimacy as complementary rather than competing priorities.
Human capability is also important. Respondents connect successful technological adoption with skills, leadership capacity and organisational readiness. The opportunity presented by AI is therefore not regarded simply as a matter of acquiring technology; organisations also need people capable of integrating it into decision-making and business processes.
3. How are governance, ESG, corporate purpose and political advocacy changing?
The report describes a substantial recalibration of the ESG agenda rather than its disappearance.
Climate change remains the most frequently cited ESG issue, mentioned by 40 percent of respondents, but this is down from 51 percent in 2025. Governance and ethics have risen sharply to 34 percent, while regulation and policy uncertainty rank third at 16 percent.
The shift becomes even clearer when respondents are asked which component of ESG represents the greatest reputational risk. Governance ranks first globally at 45 percent, ahead of environmental risk at 27 percent and social risk at 26 percent. Governance has therefore moved from the lowest-ranked of the three dimensions in 2024 to the highest in 2026.
The report interprets governance broadly. It includes ethics, accountability, board oversight, transparency, disclosure, regulatory compliance and the organisation’s ability to demonstrate effective control in volatile circumstances. The growing prominence of governance therefore connects directly with the wider geopolitical and regulatory environment described elsewhere in the report.
Another striking change concerns diversity and inclusion. Internal inclusivity and diversity falls to 7 percent among respondents’ leading ESG issues, compared with 21 percent in 2025. The authors interpret this not as evidence that social issues have become irrelevant, but as a more cautious corporate response to political and cultural controversy, with organisations concentrating attention on governance, regulation and compliance.
Political advocacy remains significant despite these pressures. Thirty-three percent of respondents say their organisation increased its political advocacy during the previous year. Increased engagement is particularly common in Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe. The report also notes that the same external pressures can produce opposite responses: some organisations increase advocacy to shape policy and manage uncertainty, while others reduce their visibility because of concerns about politicisation or reputational exposure.
Corporate purpose shows a similar tension. Eighty-two percent of respondents say their company has a stated corporate purpose, but only 32 percent report increased executive-level discussion of purpose during the previous year, down from 45 percent in 2025. The biggest obstacles to implementing purpose include the political environment, lack of an integrated implementation plan, organisational complexity and inadequate measurement.
Yet respondents do not expect expectations of corporate purpose to disappear. Thirty-six percent believe societal expectations for purposeful organisational leadership will be significantly higher in three years. The report therefore identifies a growing tension between organisations becoming more cautious internally and stakeholders continuing to expect businesses to demonstrate a broader societal role.
4. How much value does Corporate Affairs believe it creates, and how effectively is that value being measured?
Corporate Affairs practitioners remain confident that their function contributes substantially to business value, but the report exposes a significant gap between perceived value and the ability to demonstrate it systematically.
Seventy-nine percent of respondents believe Corporate Affairs has a high or significant impact on creating and protecting business value. This remains a strong result, although it has declined from 84 percent in 2025 and 91 percent in 2023.
Respondents identify forecasting around risk, crises and political developments as the area in which Corporate Affairs is most effectively creating business value, mentioned by 32 percent. Reputation management follows at 30 percent, while building internal alignment behind strategic objectives reaches 21 percent.
When asked more broadly where Corporate Affairs has contributed during the previous year, trust and reputation dominate. The report groups 94 percent of responses around reputation capital and trust, 69 percent around policy and risk, and 46 percent around growth and people-related contributions such as market access, revenue enablement and talent.
The measurement evidence, however, is considerably weaker. Only 49 percent say that they formally measure the impact or success of Corporate Affairs, while 41 percent say that they do not.
Even among the 143 respondents who use formal metrics, measurement remains heavily concentrated on relatively traditional indicators. Media performance is used by 75 percent, formal reputation or trust tracking by 65 percent, and informal stakeholder sentiment or engagement by 65 percent. Employee engagement and internal alignment indicators are used by 60 percent.
More outcome-oriented measures are less widespread. Public-policy and advocacy outcomes are used by 45 percent, risk-mitigation indicators by 39 percent, and investor perceptions or valuation signals by only 31 percent.
The report consequently identifies measurement as one of the function’s significant weaknesses. Corporate Affairs practitioners themselves say that impact measurement, data and AI capabilities require improvement, while the authors argue that organisations need to move beyond media monitoring and informal stakeholder feedback towards more structured assessments of reputation, trust, risk reduction and business value.
A second capability gap concerns AI-generated misinformation. Only 18 percent of respondents consider their Corporate Affairs function fully prepared to handle a deepfake or AI-driven misinformation incident, while 43 percent consider themselves not very prepared. The report therefore depicts a function that recognises both its strategic importance and the scale of the capability development still required.
5. What does the report say Corporate Affairs must change to become future-fit?
The strongest conclusion is that maintaining the existing Corporate Affairs model is no longer considered sufficient. Seventy-four percent of respondents believe their approach requires revision: 57 percent favour modest revision and 17 percent favour radical change.
The two major forces behind this perceived need are geopolitical volatility and AI. Respondents identify the need to respond more effectively to geopolitical conditions as one of the principal drivers of change, alongside the need to manage and exploit AI and communications technology.
When respondents specify what needs to change, clearer strategy, focus and prioritisation come first at 35 percent. Operating models, governance and internal alignment follow at 30 percent. Other priorities include resource allocation, stronger stakeholder and leadership influence, specialised skills, improved measurement and data capabilities, and stronger brand and reputation management.
Asked for the single most important action that would make Corporate Affairs future-fit, respondents place proactive, insight-led and adaptive strategic planning first at 26 percent. Adoption and integration of AI and technology follows closely at 24 percent, while talent acquisition and upskilling ranks third at 21 percent. Anticipatory governance, including foresight and risk preparedness, reaches 13 percent.
The report ultimately condenses its findings into four broad requirements.
First, Corporate Affairs strategy needs to be embedded within overall business strategy. The function should have close access to the CEO, Board and senior leadership because its ability to interpret external developments is increasingly relevant to strategic decision-making.
Second, organisations need operating models that connect headquarters, regions and business units. Geopolitical differences, trade policies and rapidly changing stakeholder expectations make internal alignment and coordinated execution increasingly important.
Third, Corporate Affairs needs new capabilities. AI expertise is one component, both for exploiting technology and responding to threats such as misinformation. But the report also emphasises foresight, political and economic analysis, international trade knowledge, forecasting and specialist talent.
Fourth, Corporate Affairs needs stronger evidence of its impact. Demonstrating contributions to reputation, trust, risk management and long-term business value becomes increasingly important if the function is to justify its more strategic organisational position.
Taken together, these findings portray a profession moving from communication and reputation management towards a broader strategic role centred on intelligence, anticipation, organisational alignment and external navigation. The report’s core implication is that reputation and stakeholder engagement remain fundamental capabilities, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. Future Corporate Affairs teams are expected to combine them with geopolitical intelligence, technological competence, foresight, measurement and much closer integration with business strategy.