• About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Statutes
    • Board
    • Member
      • Corporate
      • Personal
    • Management
    • Become a Member
  • Our Programme
    • CEO Roundtables
    • Our Cooperations
    • Lectures
    • Members’ talk
    • Webinars
    • Our Studies
  • Advocacy Programme
    • Mentoring Programme
    • Advocacy Seminars
    • Advocacy Webinars
    • Advocacy Network
    • Advocacy Voices
    • Rome Manifesto
      • The Manifesto
      • The Story behind the Manifesto
      • Partner Organisations
  • Events
    • Past events
  • DE
  • EN
  • DE
United Europe
United Europe
  • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Statutes
    • Board
    • Member
      • Corporate
      • Personal
    • Management
    • Become a Member
  • Our Programme
    • CEO Roundtables
    • Our Cooperations
    • Lectures
    • Members’ talk
    • Webinars
    • Our Studies
  • Advocacy Programme
    • Mentoring Programme
    • Advocacy Seminars
    • Advocacy Webinars
    • Advocacy Network
    • Advocacy Voices
    • Rome Manifesto
      • The Manifesto
      • The Story behind the Manifesto
      • Partner Organisations
  • Events
    • Past events
  • DE
Join
  • News
  • Our Programme
  • Our Studies

New study by United Europe and ESMT Berlin shows political commitment increasingly important for CEOs and managing directors

  • October 29, 2020

Political and social engagement is a relevant topic for European business leaders. CEOs are increasingly making public statements on political issues in order to make a positive contribution to socially relevant topics.

These are the findings of the recent study The Political CEO conducted by ESMT Master’s in Management graduate Christoph Cewe in cooperation with ESMT Berlin. The study surveyed 40 leaders of large European companies. Of those surveyed, 77.5 per cent believe that managing directors should take a stand on political issues, and 62.5 per cent state that they are also (very) likely to express themselves in sociopolitical terms. The most frequently reported motives for taking a public stance are to contribute to society (78 %) and to express corporate values (72 %).

The study entitled “The political CEO: Rationales behind CEO sociopolitical activism” explores the question of how and why CEOs and managing directors of European companies increasingly take a public stance on political and social issues that have no direct connection to their core business. Examples are climate change, immigration policy and the unconditional basic income.

“The results of the study show that managing directors express themselves publicly, primarily on political issues, so that they can use their influence to make a positive contribution on socially relevant topics. Personal motives and potential advantages for shareholders do not play a greater role,” says Christoph Cewe. “European CEOs want to add value to the substantive discourse with their public statement, but do not want to take a party-political stance. Thus, ecological, economic and social issues are identified as the most suitable topics for public comment. Less than one in ten of the CEOs surveyed stated that it is appropriate to take a party political stance in public.

Leonhard Birnbaum, member of the board of management of E.ON SE, Günther H. Oettinger, former EU commissioner and president of United Europe e.V., and Jörg Rocholl, president of ESMT, engaged in an intensive exchange.

“At United Europe we support business leaders who are committed to the European idea. For many European CEOs, political commitment is a relevant topic, but CEOs do not bear political responsibility. They must be able to maintain a balance between business competence, public credibility, and an understandable interest in social processes,” stated Günther H. Oettinger.

Jörg Rocholl added, “Authenticity and competence are the most important prerequisites for a public statement by managing directors. Lack of credibility can have immediate negative consequences, not only for the CEO personally, but for the entire company.”

The discussion was moderated by Ulrike Guérot, professor for European politics and democracy research at the Danube University Krems.

Please find here the video recording of the presentation.

  • share 
  • tweet 
  • share 
  • share 
  • save 
  • share 
  • share 
  • email 
Other Studies
  • Ukraine Study Press Review
    • April 15, 2015
  • Roland Berger Study Infrastructure Press Review
    • April 16, 2015
  • Research report “Privatisation Potential in the European Union”
    • October 13, 2014
++APPLICATION CALL++ADVOCACY SEMINAR IN BERLIN++in partnership with @EYnews and @dgapev ⌚️When? 6 February 2023 📍… https://t.co/t0qtFRtojg
16 days ago
  • Reply
  • 3 Retweet
  • Favorite
Follow
„The solution is to move Europe forward with those who believe in the same ultimate goal, a continent united in peace“

Monica Tiberi
European Federalists

More prominent opinions
Search
Trending Posts
  • Energy Security: Rethinking the European energy market
    • October 10, 2022
  • Review: United Europe’s Energy Security Summit in Vienna
    • November 16, 2022
  • Mentoring Programme: United Europe kicks off class 2022/23
    • November 23, 2022
  • Application Call for United Europe’s first Advocacy Seminar in 2023
    • January 12, 2023
  • Review on United Europe’s Panel Discussion “A New Geopolitical Order: How Reliable is the Transatlantic Partnership?” at Würth Haus in Berlin
    • December 14, 2022
  • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Statutes
    • Board
    • Member
    • Management
    • Become a Member
  • Our Programme
    • CEO Roundtables
    • Our Cooperations
    • Lectures
    • Members’ talk
    • Webinars
    • Our Studies
  • Advocacy Programme
    • Mentoring Programme
    • Advocacy Seminars
    • Advocacy Webinars
    • Advocacy Network
    • Advocacy Voices
    • Rome Manifesto
  • Events
    • Past events
  • DE
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Imprint
© United Europe e. V.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
X