Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A score above 1.00 means that a firm's inclusive value transfers (transfer-OUT) exceed its extractive transfers (transfer-IN) and its business model provides more value than it takes from its Stakeholders and society at large. The Generative Classes of V4 to V1 describe progressively stronger forms of sustainable value creation.

A score below 1.00 means that a firm's overall dependence on extractive transfers from stakeholders (transfer-IN) exceeds its inclusive value transfers (transfer-OUT) and its business model takes more value than it provides to its Stakeholders and society at large. The Extractive Classes of X1 to Z2 describe progressively weaker forms of sustainable value creation.

In the real world, all organizations both create and extract value. Rather than opposing all value transfers, the SVC Initiative takes the pragmatic position that high levels of value creation can offset weighted value transfers. The VCr scores are analytical measurements that must be interpreted in an integrated way, drawing on the full scorecard and the diverse lenses used.

The nine rating Classes mirror the principal gradations used by the credit-rating scales of Moody's, S&P and Fitch. V1–V4 constitute the 'Generative' category, while X1–X3 and Z1–Z2 constitute the 'Extractive' category. The critical dividing point is a VCr score of 1.00: ‘V’ includes firms that create more value than they extract; ‘X’ denotes business models that extract value while also pursuing value-creating productive activities; and ‘Z’ positions firms where extraction increasingly accounts for the entire business model.

Yes. Firms with business models that have low VCr scores (VCr < 1.00) are extractive and rely on value transfers, but if they are adept at value appropriation, especially from their stakeholders (value transfer-IN), they may still be very profitable and so belong in the (3) 'rentier' quadrant of the Sustainable Value Matrix. A firm can therefore be profitable and have an excellent credit rating while also creating little sustainable value. This may affect its long-term revenue generation prospects by compromising its ‘license to operate’, brand or reputation and attracting regulatory attention.

The VCr is a comprehensive sustainability measurement that assesses the proportion of value creation and value extraction in a firm’s business model. A firm’s VCr score expresses the proportion of all value creation relative to all value appropriated (revenue). It adds the unmonetized inclusive value that a firm passes on to its stakeholders (transfer-OUT) to its revenue, deducts the extractive transfers it appropriates from stakeholders (transfer-IN), and divides the result by revenue.

A VCr score above 1.00 means that the business model is Generative: its total value creation exceeds the value it appropriates as revenue. A score below 1.00 indicates that a business model is Extractive. A VCr score of 1.09, for example, means that the firm creates value equivalent to 109% of its revenue, as its inclusive transfer-OUT more than compensates for its extractive transfer-IN. The VCr draws on 123 SVC Metrics, places each firm in one of nine Classes (V1 to Z2), and has a median score of 1.01 in the VCr2026.

To the SVC Initiative, value is everything that humans deem worth appropriating from first-order productive activities.

Revenue is not identical to value. Part of a firm’s revenue can be the result of value extraction from Stakeholders through bargaining power (transfer-IN). Net Value Creation (value created and appropriated) forms part of the P&L statement, but the value created by the firm that benefits its Stakeholders without being monetized (inclusive transfer-OUT) does not. A firm’s total value creation is therefore its Net Value Creation plus its transfer-OUT.

Value extraction is a second-order value transfer where a firm uses its bargaining power differentials to appropriate value generated by counterparties. This 'value appropriated but not created' is operationalized as transfer-IN.

The VCp shows what share of a firm’s revenue comes from value it has actually created, as opposed to extractive transfers from stakeholders (transfer-IN). It is calculated as revenue minus transfer-IN, divided by revenue.

A VCp of 92.6%, for example, means that 7.4% of the firm’s revenue comes from ‘value appropriated but not created’. Unlike the VCr, the VCp does not account for the inclusive value spillovers a firm passes on to its stakeholders (transfer-OUT). Value extraction therefore remains visible, even when a firm’s value creation elsewhere offsets it in the VCr. The median VCp across the VCr2026 is 91.4%.

The VCp only considers value extraction: it illustrates what share of a firm’s revenue is not derived from extractive transfers (transfer-IN), and is expressed as a percentage that can never exceed 100%. The VCr is more comprehensive: it also considers the unmonetized value a firm creates for its stakeholders (transfer-OUT), and expresses the firm’s total value creation relative to its revenue; a score above 1.00 is Generative and below 1.00 is Extractive. The two measurements are therefore complementary.

For example, a firm with revenue of 100, transfer-IN of 15, and transfer-OUT of 25 would have a VCr of 1.10 and be classed as Generative, yet its VCp of 85% still shows that 15% of its revenue depends upon extraction from its stakeholders.

The EQx ranks the nations of the world in terms of how their meso-level elite quality impacts macro-level outcomes like economic growth; the VCr focuses on the micro-level business model of the firm. Both aim to identify the proportion of inclusive value creation in relation to extractive value transfers.

Micro-level firm agency, as measured by the Value Creation Report, aggregates at the meso-level to determine elite quality.

The VCr (and VCp) have a four-level architecture. Level 1 provides the overall VCr score of a firm. Level 2 contains the 4 Rating Areas, which emerge from combining the two firm Sub-Ratings of Power and Value with the Non-market (political) and Market (economic) dimensions. Level 3 contains the 12 Pillars. Level 4 consists of the SVC Metrics, the foundational, indivisible units of measurement. These capture specific firm-level activities, practices, and outcomes, from R&D intensity to subsidies received, that express either inclusive value creation (transfer-OUT) or extractive value transfers (transfer-IN), each quantified as a revenue-equivalent amount.

Power is the capacity to coordinate stakeholders and execute firm strategy to facilitate both value creation and the appropriation of value not created. Value is everything that is worth appropriating as the outcome of first-order productive activities; its creation increases the size of the overall economic pie. Power contributes one-third and Value two-thirds to the weighting of the VCr and VCp measurements.

Transfer-IN denotes 'value appropriated but not created': business model practices that benefit from the value created by and appropriated from stakeholders, such as subsidies, oligopoly positions, or environmental damage. Transfer-OUT denotes 'value created but not appropriated': inclusive value creation not monetized by the firm, such as innovation spillovers from R&D, employee training, or foreign investment. Neither form of transfer appears as such in a firm’s financial statements, even though value transfer-IN is monetized and forms part of reported revenue. The VCr makes both forms of value transfers quantifiable in revenue-equivalent terms and traceable to the business model and P&L.

The VCr2026 operationalizes 12 value co-creation Stakeholder types: Customers, Suppliers, Management, Employees, Shareholders, Lenders, Government, Narratives, Society, NextGen, Abroad, and Nature. Each SVC Metric is assigned to between one and three of these categories, to make explicit which Stakeholders a firm co-creates value with and from whom it extracts value.

Each Firm VCr Scorecard highlights a firm’s three dominant inclusive/extractive Stakeholder value transfers, offering management a strategic overview of its business model relationships.

The VCr2026 organizes its Metrics into 17 Themes across seven domains (Finance, Management, Operations, Governance, Environment, Society, and Technology), adding a further unweighted lens that translates the Metrics into categories familiar to managers, financial analysts, and investors. Each Metric is mapped to between one and three Themes, from Climate & Energy Efficiency to Taxation & Auditing. Unlike conventional ESG themes, these are not focused on risks or disclosures but on the capabilities and behaviors through which firms either create or appropriate value, offering investors a financial view of the business model.

Each VCr Firm Scorecard highlights a firm’s three dominant inclusive or extractive value transfers by Theme, offering financial analysts an issue-based view of the business model.

The VCr Firm Scorecard lists the most important SVC Metrics for each firm. The selection of ‘The Critical 42’ is algorithm-driven, with criteria including impact (in monetary terms), data availability, country, industry, and materiality. In short, the VCr question is not in doubt, and while the 42 do not constitute the answer to everything, they are the Metrics that matter most for each firm.

The VCr2026 utilizes 123 SVC Metrics to rate the 1,000 leading firms by market value from the world's top stock exchanges.

This is certainly possible, even though the VCr2026 does not currently include scores for Sub-Ratings and Rating Areas on the scorecard. As the net transfer-IN/OUT is available, you could use the chatbotVCr to retrieve any VCr score.

Note that the VCr scores of the Sub-Ratings and Rating Areas are calculated from the balance of transfer-IN and transfer-OUT within each area, relative to the share of revenue that corresponds to that area’s weight. Where transfer-OUT exceeds transfer-IN, the score is above 1.00; where transfer-IN exceeds transfer-OUT, it is below 1.00. For these calculations, the respective weights are as follows: the Power Sub-Rating carries a weight of 33.33% and the Value Sub-Rating a weight of 66.67%. For the Rating Areas, Non-market Power carries a weight of 11.11%, Market Power and Non-market Value each have a weight of 22.22%, and Market Value has a weight of 44.44%.

Firm-level VCr (and VCp) scores are the result of a three-stage process: (I) the conceptual determination of the SVC Metrics; (II) the quantification of the SVC Metrics (input); and (III) the calculation of the SVC measurements (output). The details are set out in the freely downloadable VCr2026 report, and the book on the elite theory here.

Each Metric establishes a monetary amount that is either traceable to revenue in the P&L statement (transfer-IN) or matchable against it (transfer-OUT). This aligns the VCr with standard P&L accounting, expresses impact in terms that those who run business models understand, and facilitates decision-making at firms and institutions. Mainstream ESG ratings, by contrast, mostly use non-monetary scores and indicators.

The data comes from a wide range of sources including firm financial statements, set calculations based on diverse data, and third-party dataset suppliers. All transfer-IN and transfer-OUT activities are then translated into revenue-equivalent values and adjusted with a 'calibration factor'. Data sources for every SVC Metric can be found in the VCr2026 report or by inquiring here.

The VCr methodology follows a structured 9-step development cycle that references the OECD (2008) guidelines for constructing composite indicators, including robustness and sensitivity analyses and validation. The commitment to full transparency means that all of the steps taken in data collection are documented and made available for external scrutiny.

The Self-assessment Value Creation Rating (self-VCr) is a customizable webapp that complements the VCr. This survey instrument allows executives and boards to self-report unstructured and qualitative data in strict confidence, transforming the tacit knowledge held at the top of the firm into monetary-equivalent estimates of its value transfers. The tool generates self-VCr and self-VCp scores, positions the firm on the Sustainable Value Matrix, and lets leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, owners, and boards test how strategic changes could affect their rating. Partners and other stakeholders can also be invited to contribute. The self-VCr is designed for internal use rather than external comparison to support transformational leadership effort, better capital allocation, and internal sustainability reporting.

No. The Value Creation Rating (VCr), the Value Creation Position (VCp), the Firm Scorecards, the chatbotVCr, and all related data, analyses, and publications are provided for research, educational, and informational purposes only. They do not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other form of advice, nor an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or financial instrument. A VCr score or Class does not imply any expected return, risk adjustment, or credit quality, and must not be relied upon for making financial or any other decisions. Users remain solely responsible for their own decisions and should always consult a qualified professional financial adviser. None of the institutions, contributors, researchers, or partners involved in this research project accept liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of this information.

For commercial use of the VCr or its derived datasets, please contact us at rights@valuecreation.org.

The Foundation for Value Creation, a St.Gallen-based non-profit foundation supervised by the Swiss Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations, is the publisher of the VCr2026. The Foundation has coordinated the development of the VCr with scholars and other partners, with academic institutes at the University of St.Gallen providing academic leadership in partnership with other collaborating institutions.