Lecture | Are we listening? Using conflicts analytics to manage corporate political risk

In an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment, firms are often exposed to conflict through their supply chains, workforces, customers, and regulatory environments. This lecture discusses why political-risk strategies centred on avoidance are becoming less effective and presents approaches that account for the socio-political dynamics underlying conflict escalation.

Introducing a conflict-listening framework, the lecture demonstrates how geolocated, multilingual measures of intergroup sentiment and issue salience can provide early warning of escalation and reveal how businesses become implicated in local grievances. Drawing on evidence from multiple studies, it pinpoints key drivers of sentiment toward firms and outlines practical implications for political-risk assessment, due diligence, and stakeholder engagement.