Organizational Governance

Divided Americans Unite in Call for People-First Approach to Business

Overall, there is a tremendous opportunity for corporate America to take a leadership role in tackling some of the country’s more intractable economic and societal challenges — and to become a positive, unifying force by doing so.

Published 13 hours ago | About a 5 minute read

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In October, JUST Capital released its 8th annual Americans’ Views on Business Survey. The results underscored the complex stakeholder landscape facing CEOs today while providing a roadmap for corporations seeking to attain a leadership role in society.

The findings resonate strongly with the sentiments that drove the results of the November 2024 election: People in the US are concerned about their economic wellbeing, how they are treated as consumers and being able to support their families. And almost across the board, they call for increased corporate transparency, accountability and leadership.

The report offers CEOs, boards and other business leaders a playbook for understanding and addressing stakeholder demands in a hyper-divided world, and provides examples of how to unlock competitive advantage through action.

Divided US public still unified on fundamental issues

JUST Capital’s annual rankings process begins with small-group discussions with a diverse and representative mix of 3,000 US adults, to understand the actions and behaviors they expect from a “just” business. This year, 17 key issues (Fig. 1, below) were uncovered — many of which are consistently mentioned year after year.

The three highest-ranked issues are surprisingly consistent (Figure 2) cross demographic groupings — including race/ethnicity, gender, income levels, age, political ideologies and whether respondents are active investors — indicating that the public is united across political ideologies around the issues they want companies to prioritize.

Conceptually, Americans tend to agree on what they consider to be “just” business behaviors: The public is unified in wanting companies to treat their workers and customers with respect, humanity and fairness.

Of the 17 key issues evaluated, most of the top 10 are connected to how companies act on basic worker- and customer-related factors. In addition, the desire for integrity in business leadership rose significantly in ranked importance. In contrast to four years ago, when CEOs were expected to take a stance on hot-button social issues, the public says today’s leaders should direct their focus to core operational, strategic and financial matters.

Moreover, deeds matter far more than words: The public is less interested in hearing company commitments and targets than understanding how companies are walking their talk on the issues of greatest importance.

Key findings include:

Fair, living wages continue to be the #1 issue year over year.
Worker wellbeing issues — ensuring a safe work environment, supporting mental health issues, listening to workers, engaging them in the workplace — also ranked highly across demographics, as did providing meaningful benefits and supporting a good work-life balance.
Ethical leadership rose 5 places to #2, presumably driven by a widespread desire to rebuild trust between institutions and the people they serve. “Conducts business ethically and honestly, and takes responsibility for wrongdoings” comprises 10 percent of a company’s score in JUST Capital’s 2025 Rankings. While ethics can be extremely subjective, there is general agreement on the interpretation in a business context: Across demographics, it means companies being open and honest about their operations, honoring their commitments, not misleading people or covering up unjust acts, and operating with a greater sense of corporate responsibility and citizenship.
Relatedly, communicating honestly and transparently rose 8 places to #4. “Is honest and transparent in communications with customers about its products, services and operations” rose from #12 last year to #4 this year — highlighting increasing consumer understanding of greenwashing; many respondents describe this issue as fundamental to ethical leadership.
Fair pricing is an issue that emerged this year for the first time, likely reflecting the effects of pandemic-related inflation. Respondents called for the price of a good or service to be in line with its value and quality, and wariness around price gouging or excessive price increases. “Offers quality products and/or services at a fair price” debuted at #8 in overall priority this year. 79 percent of respondents agreed that “it is unjust for corporations to increase profit margins by keeping consumer prices high even as the cost of materials comes down” — signaling that high prices have been a key pain point for US consumers over the past 18 months.
The language may be different, but there is basic alignment. On issues where opinions differed across political or other demographic groups — such as fostering an inclusive workplace or environmental issues — there was a surprising amount of alignment on these concepts, even though the terminology different groups used to express these concepts differed. This echoes recent research finding that post-election Americans still expect corporate leadership on critical social issues including DEI and ESG (regardless of the terms companies choose to use, to avoid polarization).
Likewise, environmental issues are on average prioritized lower than Worker or Customer issues, even among the demographic groups who support these issues the most (e.g. younger Americans, Democrats). Yet even among groups where the idea of climate change is not universally accepted, there is broad agreement that companies have a disproportionate influence on the environment and, therefore, a responsibility to minimize negative impact.
A focus on the public’s priorities leads to long-term value. In the eight years since it began fielding this research, JUST Capital says the public has not only consistently advocated for a shift away from shareholder primacy toward a more values-driven, stakeholder-capitalist model of business, they’ve connected the dots between creating shared value and long-term revenue generation.

A roadmap for corporate prioritization in a divided time

JUST Capital says the US public has yet again provided clear guidance on how companies can rebuild their trust in business and markets as a force for good.

By recognizing and embracing the expectation to create value for all stakeholders, businesses can lay the groundwork for sustained growth, innovation and excellence. Companies benefit by gaining competitive advantage, and society benefits through scaled positive impacts.