War in Europe, global inflation, the soaring cost of living and the aftermath of the pandemic. We are living through a series of ‘once-in-a-generation’ crises. At this fragile time, multinational companies face unique reputational challenges globally, tasked with navigating everything from rising geopolitical tensions to managing local opposition to foreign investment.

Our teams at Stack Data Strategy and Hanbury Strategy have combined to conduct public opinion research across four countries in four continents - the UK, US, Argentina and Nigeria - into how levels of receptiveness and hostility to FDI vary, and attitudes to foreign investment are shaped by different forces.

Foreign investment often evokes strong visceral reactions based on historical associations or geopolitical tensions. To surmount these challenges we propose five reputation levers businesses can pull to build trust and support, connect more closely with the public, and achieve communications cut-through.