for long-term investments, where small miscalculations can cascade into significant valuation errors, distorted capital flows, flawed projections, and unintended social consequences. Such data gaps can even destabilize financial markets, making them less resilient to systemic shocks and undermining fiduciary responsibilities to forecast future value accurately. Since all materiality judgements are inherently subjective, we argue that – particularly in the context of increasingly complex and dynamic markets - effective investment valuation models benefit from recognising multiple stakeholder perspectives beyond investors. In this context, and drawing on cultural anthropology, 52 we use the term multivocality to refer to the integration of diverse stakeholder perspectives and data sources to improve the understanding of an investment’s potential risks and returns. We suggest that multivocality provides a novel interpretive - rather than technical - approach through which questions of materiality (what counts as value) and risk (how uncertainty is understood, over what horizon, and for whom) are better understood. Therefore, a multivocality approach expands the decision-useful dataset beyond conventional financial metrics, incorporating broader material considerations that refine risk assessments and decision-making and ensuring that data that may be excluded as ‘externalities’ is included when material. In addition, a multivocality approach addresses the reality that future value creation is embedded within a broader social and environmental context, where financial capital depends on other forms of capital and that these systemic inter-dependencies are best understood by incorporating a wider range of perspectives and voices. We argue that by taking a multivocality approach, market practitioners may strengthen the material evidence base available to them, particularly in long-term investments where uncertainty increases over time. Moreover, a multivocality approach may also reduce valuation uncertainty by enhancing risk-return analysis with more holistic, multidimensional data. This is especially valuable in long-term investments, where conventional models often fail to capture all non-financial value creation. By broadening material considerations, asset managers may improve financial forecasts, mitigate long- term risk, and better assess the long-term social and environmental impacts of their investments.
In summary we suggest that a multivocality approach:
• Enables a broader range of factors to be considered material beyond the purely financial. • Incorporates a broader range of stakeholder perspectives on what constitutes material, decision-relevant, data • Extends financial materiality for long-term investment considering future generations perspectives as well as those of the present. • Provides a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of risk, especially for long-term investments where risks often become clearer over time.
52 See Rodman, M.C., 1992. Empowering place: Multilocality and multivocality. American anthropologist, 94(3), pp.640-656; Atalay, S., 2008. Multivocality and indigenous archaeologies. In Evaluating multiple narratives: beyond nationalist, colonialist, imperialist archaeologies (pp. 29-44); Hodder, Ian. "Multivocality and social archaeology." In Evaluating multiple narratives: Beyond nationalist, colonialist, imperialist archaeologies, pp. 196-200; Casasnovas, G., Hehenberger, L.K. and Papageorgiou, K., 2020. Multivocality and calculability in field emergence: The case of impact investing in Spain. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2020, No. 1, p. 18985); Cisneros-Puebla, C.A., 2022. Multivocality as Practice of Critical Inquiry for Social Justice. Qualitative Report, 27(8); Wylie, A., 2008. The integrity of narratives: deliberative practice, pluralism, and multivocality. Evaluating multiple narratives: Beyond nationalist, colonialist, imperialist archaeologies, pp.201-212.
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