MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Despite an international context still characterized by economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological transformations, business leaders look to the future with confidence. Almost seven out of ten executives (69.4%) expect an improvement in business results over the next 12 months. The level of trust reaches the highest values in the United States (85%), Saudi Arabia (76%) and China (73%), followed by Italy and Germany with 57% and 56% respectively.
This is what emerges from an international research by AstraRicerche and commissioned by Omnicom Public Relations Italy, conducted at the beginning of November 2026 on 500 C-suite executives and top management, with a sample of 100 managers in each of the following countries: United States, Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia and China. The study highlights how organizations see in the combination of technological innovation, favorable economic conditions and quality of relations with stakeholders the main engine of future growth.
Among the factors considered to be more relevant to strengthen value creation in the long term, the executives point to the first place the acceleration of technological innovation driven by artificial intelligence (48.6%), followed by increased demand (44.8%), increased economic stability (44.6%) and increased customer confidence (43.0%).
The data also highlights how growth is increasingly linked to intangible assets. 82.4% of respondents identify at least one element that can be traced back to relational capital – as customer trust, corporate reputation, talent attraction or quality of relationships with stakeholders – as a determining factor for value creation.
When asked what stakeholders are most important for the success of the organization, executives identify customers (58.2%), employees (56.4%), partners and suppliers (55.0%). Investors and shareholders follow (44.6%), institutions, public authorities and regulators (32.4%).
However, the most strategic relationships are often the most complex to manage. Partners and suppliers (32.8%) and customers (30.6%) are in fact the stakeholders who report the biggest difficulties.
More than a third of the sample (37.8%) claims to have to handle at least two relationships at the same time considered essential for business and difficult to maintain.
Among those who report difficulties in managing stakeholders, 82.8% attribute such complexity to external factors.
At the top of the list are political and regulatory uncertainty (32.9%), the impact of duties and inflation (32.9%), economic pressure (32.7%) and divergent expectations between different stakeholders (28.8%). The scenario suggests that the ability to build consensus, trust and solid relationships is becoming an increasingly strategic competence for management.
55.2% of executives declare that their organization formally measures the quality of relations with key stakeholders systematically and regularly. 32.6% indicate only partial or occasional measurement. 12.2% do not measure the quality of relationships: 8.8% are developing measuring instruments, 3.4% are not planning to do so.
However, there remains a gap between awareness and operational practice: 32% believe that relationships should be measured with the same rigor of financial performance, while recognizing that their organization does not yet systematically do so.
“The results show how value creation is increasingly the result of the interaction between technological innovation and the ability to build quality relationships with stakeholders. In a global context characterized by deep transformations, algorithmic fragmentation and increasing geopolitical tensions, management of communication and relationships becomes a levto even more strategic for the business, directly connected to the ability to generate growth and performance. Companies that will measure and correlate the quality of relationships to concrete performance indicators will also be the ones best placed to create value in the long term.” Massimo Moriconi, CEO of Omnicom Public Relations Italy and President of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO).
– Omnicom press office photos –
(ITALPRESS).
